Westwater Resources, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Steve, please go ahead. Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today for Westwater Resources' second quarter 2026 business update. Our Form 10-Q was filed earlier this week and is available in the Investors section of our website at westwaterresources.com. Joining me today on the call are Terence Cryan, our Executive Chairman, and Frank Bakker, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Both will be available to answer questions following our prepared remarks. As a reminder, today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, future events and expectations, including projected demand for graphite products, expected timelines and costs related to the Kellyton Graphite Plant and the Coosa graphite deposit, financing activities, permitting timelines, and customer qualification efforts. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations.

Please refer to our SEC filings and the cautionary language including in our press releases for additional detail. With that, I'll turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Terence Cryan.

Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. This week marked a major step forward for Westwater, for Kellyton, and for the build-out of American-made battery-grade natural graphite. On Monday, we announced that EXIM approved a $25 million loan to support continued development of our Kellyton Graphite Plant in Alabama. EXIM's $25 million approval is more than a financing milestone. It's a clear recognition of the strategic importance of Kellyton and the role domestic graphite production can play in strengthening the U.S. critical mineral supply chain. For years, the United States has relied heavily on foreign sources of graphite and battery-grade graphite materials. Kellyton is being developed to help change that by advancing domestic processing capacity for graphite, a U.S. critical mineral essential to lithium-ion batteries, energy storage, and advanced manufacturing.

We are now one step closer to something the country urgently needs: American-made battery-grade natural graphite produced here in the U.S. for U.S. supply chains. Importantly, the loan approval moves us one step closer to commercial production from Kellyton, which could commence as soon as next year. The loan was approved under EXIM's Make More in America initiative, which supports domestic manufacturing projects tied to critical U.S. supply chains, and Kellyton fits the bill. For Westwater, this approval provides non-dilutive capital to advance Kellyton from construction and equipment installation to commissioning and operational readiness. As we shared in our first quarter call, we and our advisors have been actively engaged in D.C. in the pursuit of sourcing non-dilutive, lower-cost sources of capital. The EXIM approval we received this week is a direct reflection of that ongoing effort.

Our Kellyton Graphite Plant is an advanced physical asset with significant capital already deployed. Since inception, the company has invested approximately $130 million in phase one. We have buildings in place, equipment on site and on order, an operating qualification line, an R&D lab, and a team advancing the technical and operational capabilities needed to support commercial production. We believe that progress gives Westwater a three to five-year first-mover advantage versus our competitors. In an industry where projects can take years to advance, the work already completed at Kellyton gives us a head start as the U.S. works to build domestic battery-grade graphite production capacity. The Kellyton plant is designed to produce Coated Spherical Purified Graphite, or CSPG, a battery-grade natural graphite material used primarily in lithium-ion batteries. Phase one is designed to produce approximately 12,500 metric tons per year of CSPG. That is why EXIM's approval is so important.

It supports the next stage of work at Kellyton and recognizes the strategic value of building this type of processing capacity here in the U.S. It also reflects the amount of work our team has already done to move Kellyton forward from engineering and equipment procurement to customer qualification and operational readiness. At the same time, the EXIM approval is one step in a broader financing strategy. We are also continuing to pursue additional government funding sources and other financing alternatives to support the completion of Kellyton phase one and beyond. Our financing objective is clear: secure the capital needed for Kellyton on the best terms available and begin producing American-made battery-grade natural graphite here in the U.S. We have been disciplined, focused, and persistent in our approach, and the EXIM approval reflects that strategy.

As we move forward, we will continue customer qualification activities at Kellyton and Coosa permitting and continue to advance our business. With that, I'll turn the call over to Frank to provide an operational update.

Thank you, Terence, and good morning, everyone. As Terence mentioned, Kellyton remains central to Westwater's strategy to build U.S.-based production of battery-grade graphite. During the second quarter and first half of 2026, we continued to advance Kellyton at a measured pace. We oversaw detailed engineering and manufacturing progress related to long-lead equipment ordered last year, and we are continuing to support its progress and delivery. We also continue to operate a qualification line and R&D lab at Kellyton. These capabilities are important because they allow us to continue product development, produce material for customer evaluation, support in-house quality control testing, and train our team on the processes and equipment for future commercial operations. To date, the qualification line has enabled Westwater to produce samples in excess of 1 metric ton of CSPG for use in pre-production evaluation and testing.

The CSPG produced on the qualification line is representative of material we expect to produce in a future commercial setting, and we expect the line to support additional bulk sample production for customer qualification activities. Our R&D work also remains an important part of our customer engagement strategy. One area of focus is the battery energy storage market. We recognize that certain battery chemistries used in energy storage applications, including LFP, have historically relied heavily on synthetic graphite because of performance characteristics such as lower swelling. That said, natural graphite has certain advantages, including higher energy density. Our R&D team is focused on developing a natural graphite-based anode material, including work aimed at developing lower-swelling material that could potentially address opportunities in the energy storage market over time. This is not something we view as theoretical.

It is part of the product development and qualification work taking place at Kellyton today. As the market evolves, we are ensuring Westwater is positioned to respond to customer needs across battery applications. During the first half of 2026, Westwater provided product samples for evaluation and qualification to prospective customers in the electric vehicle and battery energy storage systems. Many of these prospective customers include large global lithium-ion battery manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers. We continue to explore additional offtake opportunities with prospective customers, and we will continue providing product samples to support their evaluation and qualification processes. Turning to Coosa. We advanced permitting and technical work during the first half of the year. Coosa is intended to serve as a long-term domestic source of natural graphite flake concentrate for the Kellyton Graphite Plant.

During the first half of 2026, we completed environmental, cultural, hydrologic, and geochemical studies supporting federal and state permitting efforts. These activities included wetland and stream delineations, jurisdictional determination activities, cultural resource surveys, habitat assessments, and others across the project area. On June 15, 2026, we submitted our Section 404 permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and on June 26, 2026, the Corps issued the project's public notice, formally beginning the public review process. Coosa also received covered project designation under the FAST-41 federal permitting program. FAST-41 is intended to improve the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of the federal permitting process through publicly available permitting schedules and formal coordination mechanisms. The current estimated completion date for environmental review and permitting, as reflected on the FAST-41 dashboard, is June 2027.

That timing matters because Coosa is intended to support Kellyton over the long term as a domestic source of natural graphite feedstock. As we work to bring Kellyton closer to production, we are also advancing the resource that can support a more fully integrated U.S. graphite supply chain over time. Operationally, our priorities remain clear: continue advancing Kellyton, support customer qualification, progress Coosa through permitting, and position Westwater to produce battery-grade natural graphite in the United States. With that, I will turn the call over to Steve for the financial update.