Earthworks close acquisition of critical minerals recycling and recovery system

VANCOUVER, BC, June 29, 2026 /CNW/ - Earthworks Industries Inc. (TSX-V: EWK) (OTCQB: EAATF) ("Earthworks" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the acquisition of a 100% interest in a Critical Minerals Recycling and Recovery System from Wokaura Art & Innovations Inc. ("Wokaura"), further to its news releases dated February 13, 2026 and March 27, 2026, and TSX Venture Exchange approval received on May 14, 2026.

Pursuant to the acquisition, the Company has issued 2,000,000 common shares to Wokaura, subject to a 4-month hold period expiring September 15, 2026. The Company has also issued 1,000,000 common shares into escrow that will be released to Wokaura 12 months from the date of TSX Venture Exchange approval, and 1,000,000 common shares that will be released 24 months from the date of TSX Venture Exchange approval.

CEO of Earthworks, Mr. David Atkinson, commented, "The completion of this acquisition represents a transformative milestone for Earthworks as we establish a new strategic direction focused on critical minerals recycling and recovery. Global demand for secure domestic sources of critical materials continues to accelerate, while Western supply chains remain constrained and vulnerable. We believe Earthworks is uniquely positioned to participate in this rapidly growing sector through the deployment of scalable, modular recycling and recovery solutions designed to unlock value from secondary and legacy material streams. Beginning with copper, our mission is to deploy a leading critical minerals recycling and recovery platform capable of serving industrial, battery, rare earth, strategic and defense-related critical minerals for the West."

Earthworks will now move forward to secure its first location, procure equipment, source feedstock, obtain any requisite permitting, align strategic partnerships, and complete pilot facility development activities related to its first recycling operation.

About the Critical Minerals Recycling & Recovery System

The Earthworks Critical Minerals Recovery System is a full-stack platform for the recycling and recovery of critical minerals from secondary and legacy material streams. The System combines modular physical processing infrastructure with a cloud-based digital operating layer, designed to function together as an integrated, scalable network deployable across multiple locations and material streams.

The platform is built around a hub-and-spoke deployment model, enabling the Company to pursue modular, repeatable facility installations that can be deployed near source material, aggregated regionally, and scaled efficiently. The initial deployment focus is a pilot copper recycling facility in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, with expansion planned vertically through additional throughput, horizontally through new locations, and laterally through additional material streams including precious metals, battery metals, rare earth elements, and defense-related materials.

About Critical Minerals

The race to build and power artificial intelligence infrastructure, electrify transportation, modernize defense systems, and expand advanced manufacturing has created an unprecedented and accelerating demand for critical minerals; copper, rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, nickel, tungsten, titanium, and many others that form the physical foundation of the 21st century economy. The problem is supply. Refining and processing capacity for these materials is heavily concentrated in foreign jurisdictions, most significantly China, creating vulnerabilities in Western supply chains that are no longer theoretical but active and urgent. Both Canada and the United States have responded with landmark policy commitments, including Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy and the U.S. Defense Production Act and CHIPS Act, directed at building domestic supply chain resilience. Primary mining alone cannot close the gap fast enough; new mine development typically takes a decade or more from discovery to production.

This is where recycling and secondary recovery become strategically essential. The materials the West needs already exist above ground in vast quantities, in end-of-life electronics, industrial scrap, manufacturing byproducts, and legacy mine waste.  Urban recycling offers a faster, lower-impact, and more capital-efficient path to production than greenfield development but where domestic recovery infrastructure in North America remains fragmented and undersupplied, creating a clear need for modular, deployable, digitally managed recovery capacity. Through its acquisition of the Critical Minerals Recovery System, Earthworks now holds a full-stack platform purpose-built to address exactly that need, beginning with copper and expanding through battery metals, rare earth elements, precious metals, and defense-related materials across Canada and the United States.

Wokaura Art & Innovations Inc. is a private innovation and intellectual property development company focused on the creation, incubation, and commercialization of emerging technologies and business systems across multiple sectors, including mining, technology, consumer products and more.

Earthworks lndustries lnc. (TSX-V: EWK, OTCQB: EAATF) is a waste material management and resource recovery company focused on developing and expanding its operations across the recycling and critical minerals sectors. The Company is pursuing opportunities to integrate innovative recovery solutions into its existing material handling platform to support the growing demand for secure and responsible sources of critical materials.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this News Release.

SOURCE Earthworks Industries Inc.

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