Mr. Craig Nicol reports

GMG ANNOUNCES BATTERY JOINT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WITH RIO TINTO

Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd. and Rio Tinto have signed a binding joint development agreement (JDA) with the goal of accelerating the development and application of the company's graphene aluminum-ion batteries in the mining and minerals industry. Rio Tinto will contribute technical and operational performance criteria and $6-million (Australian), in exchange for preferential access rights.

Rio Tinto has put the net-zero transition at the heart of its business strategy: combining investments in commodities that enable the energy transition with actions to decarbonize its operations and value chains. The JDA seeks to support the accelerated development of Graphene Manufacturing's graphene aluminum-ion batteries for use in heavy mobile equipment and grid energy storage applications in the mining and mineral industry.

The JDA builds on the existing collaboration for Rio Tinto to explore the use of Graphene Manufacturing's energy saving and energy storage solutions (see company announcement on May 18, 2022). This JDA is effective immediately and is expected to last two years with payments spread over the term of the agreement. The JDA aims to co-develop Graphene Manufacturing's graphene aluminum-ion battery pouch cell into an initial battery pack/module proof of concept.

Rio Tinto will seek to involve original equipment manufacturers (OEM), including heavy mobile equipment OEMs, to work with Graphene Manufacturing and Rio Tinto to align the battery pack development with end use requirements.

Success could see performance enhancements for Rio Tinto, including faster charging and longer-life batteries for heavy mobile equipment and grid energy storage, as well as supporting Rio Tinto's decarbonization ambitions.

Graphene Manufacturing will retain ownership of the intellectual property of the Graphene Manufacturing graphene aluminum ion battery pouch cell and battery pack. On successful completion of the joint project, Rio Tinto would have the right to procure and use the batteries in its operations.

Rio Tinto chief scientist Nigel Steward said: "We are excited to expand and deepen our partnership with GMG. We both share a vision of a low-carbon future and for Rio Tinto it's a crucial time to partner with companies like GMG to accelerate battery technology and innovation. We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration and leveraging our combined expertise and resources to develop a truly green battery that has the potential to improve the way we supply and store energy."

Graphene Manufacturing's managing director and chief executive officer, Craig Nicol, commented: "We are excited to be collaborating with Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining companies, who are committed to leveraging leading technologies for efficient and low-carbon operations. The collaboration with Rio Tinto on the applications of graphene aluminum-ion batteries is a key step for GMG. Together, with the existing technical and supply chain partnerships already established, this is another important step towards GMG's goal to become a major global supplier of next-generation batteries as we continue to derisk the commercial scale up of this technology."

Guy Outen, Graphene Manufacturing's chair, commented: "I am very pleased to further deepen our partnership with Rio Tinto. I believe the opportunity to work closely with them given their capability and drive as a large potential customer to access leading new technologies will greatly assist the potential development of our next-generation graphene aluminum-ion batteries. More broadly, significant customer feedback to GMG has reinforced the opportunity of the pouch cell battery format and this JDA with Rio Tinto is another example. We'll now reprioritize our energies to developing this form of battery which should further support progress towards our aim of a commercial, large-scale, highly competitive battery."

About Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd.

Graphene Manufacturing is a clean-technology company which seeks to offer energy saving and energy storage solutions, enabled by graphene, including that manufactured in-house via a proprietary production process.

It has developed a proprietary production process to decompose natural gas (such as methane) into its elements, carbon (as graphene), hydrogen and some residual hydrocarbon gases. This process produces high-quality, low-cost, scalable, tunable and low/no contaminant graphene suitable for use in clean-technology and other applications. The company's present focus is to derisk and develop commercial scale-up capabilities, and secure market applications.

In the energy savings segment, Graphene Manufacturing has focused on graphene-enhanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC-R) coating (or energy-saving paint), lubricants and fluids. In the energy storage segment, Graphene Manufacturing and the University of Queensland are working collaboratively with financial support from the Australian government to progress research and development and commercialization of graphene aluminum-ion batteries (G+AI batteries).

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