Mr. Simon Clarke reports

AMERICAN CRITICAL MINERALS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF DEAN PEKESKI AS SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE COMPANY

American Critical Minerals Corp. has appointed Dean Pekeski as senior adviser to the company with immediate effect.

Mr. Pekeski has been involved in senior technical and corporate positions across the mining sector for over 33 years with a particular focus on potash exploration and development for over 17 years of that time. In particular, Mr. Pekeski was executive vice-president of Western Potash Corp. (WPX -- Toronto Stock Exchange) from 2008 to 2015 and lead discovery and development of the Milestone potash solution mining project in Saskatchewan which is currently 80 per cent complete. Since 2016 Mr. Pekeski has been involved with Peak Minerals Inc., a private company developing the Sevier Playa potassium sulphate (SOP) brine project in Utah where he has served as project director and chief executive officer, president, and director since 2020.

Mr. Pekeski is intimate with all aspects of potash exploration, solution mining, brine evaporation and processing of potassium, magnesium, sodium chloride, bromine and lithium-rich brines. During his career at Western Potash and Peak Minerals he has advanced projects through key project milestones including discovery, technical studies (PEA, PFS, FS, FEED), geotechnical and constructability testing, process pilot testing, successful environmental permitting at all government levels, securing key supply, and construction contracts and off-take agreements, and financing. Throughout his career Mr. Pekeski has raised more than $120-million (U.S.) capital at appropriate valuations to enable the company's he has worked for to meet milestones, growth and market share. He has a deep network with a number of equity, debt and royalty investors, is well connected with peer/industry companies across Utah and beyond, and has good connections into local and federal government funding initiatives and state and federal regulators. He is also intimate with global potash supply, demand, pricing and development projects globally.

Mr. Pekeski holds honours, BSc, geology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, 1994, is a PDAC member and has his PGeo registration with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan. He is also an director of Fidelity Minerals Corp. and Power One Resources Corp.

Management commentary

Simon Clarke, president and chief executive officer, stated: "We are extremely pleased to welcome Dean to our team, his knowledge, background and insights, as well as his strategic relationships in Utah and beyond will be extremely valuable as we continue to advance our Green River project. His in-depth technical knowledge in potash exploration, development and processing will be invaluable as we move to drill and derisk the Green River project, and the timing of his appointment could not be better as we finalize our drill targets and drill contracts and prepare to drill in the New Year.

"His ability to raise capital for potash development and to attract strategic sector partners and off takers, as well as his links into state and federal government agencies, will help to ensure we have access to appropriate capital as we look to aggressively develop this project as a major potential source of both potash and lithium to strengthen U.S. domestic supply chains of these critical minerals."

About American Critical Minerals' Green River potash and lithium project

The Green River potash and lithium project is situated within Utah's highly productive Paradox basin, located 20 miles northwest of Moab, Utah. It has significant logistical advantages including close proximity to major rail hubs, airport, roads, water, towns and labour markets. It also benefits from close proximity to the agricultural and industrial heartland of America and numerous potential end-users for its products.

The history of oil and gas production across the Paradox basin provides geologic data from historic wells across the project, and the wider basin, validating and derisking the potential for high-grade potash and large amounts of contained lithium. Wells in and around the project reported lithium up to 500 ppm (parts per million), bromine up to 6,100 ppm and boron up to 1,260 ppm (Gilbride & Santos, 2012). These data are reinforced by nearby potash production and the advanced stage of neighbouring lithium projects. The Paradox basin is believed to contain up to 56 billion tonnes of lithium brines, potentially the largest such resource in the United States.

The company's National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects potash exploration target consists of 500 million to 950 million tonnes of sylvinite (the most important source for the production of potash in North America) grading from 12 per cent to 18 per cent potassium oxide based on elog (eK2O equals 19 per cent to 29 per cent potassium chloride based on elog (eKCl)). Its exploration targets for lithium and bromine are 2.1 billion cubic metres (brine volume) grading from 71.6 to 216.3 parts per million lithium; and 2.1 billion cubic metres (brine volume) grading from 3,656 to 4,741 parts per million bromine.

The company holds a 100-per-cent interest in 11 State of Utah (SITLA) mineral and minerals salt leases covering approximately 7,050 acres, 1,094 federal lithium brine claims (Bureau of Land Management placer claims) covering 21,150 acres, and 11 federal (BLM) potash prospecting permits covering approximately 25,480 acres. Through these leases, permits and claims the company has the ability to explore for potash, lithium and potential byproducts across the entire Green River project (approximately 32,530 acres). The company is authorized to drill a total of seven drill holes across the project (pending bonding the recently approved four drill holes).

Intrepid Potash Inc. is America's largest potash company and only U.S. domestic potash producer and currently produces potash from its nearby Moab solution mine, which the company believes provides strong evidence of stratigraphic continuity within this part of the Paradox basin. Anson Resources Ltd. has advanced lithium development projects contiguous to the northern boundary of the company's Green River project and neighbouring to the south. Anson has a large initial resource, robust definitive feasibility study and has recently completed successful piloting operations through its partnership with Koch Technology Solutions, as well as an offtake agreement with LG Energy Solution. The Anson exploration targets encompass the combined Mississippian Leadville formation and the Pennsylvanian Paradox formation brine-bearing clastic layers, which also underlie American Critical Minerals' entire project area.

In 2022, the United States imported approximately 96.5 per cent of its annual potash requirements with domestic producers receiving a higher sales price due to proximity to market. In March, 2024, the U.S. Senate introduced a bill to include key fertilizers and potash on the U.S. Department of Interior list of critical minerals which already includes lithium, and this process is well advanced with potash being added to the USGS Draft Critical Minerals List. Recent market estimates suggest that the global potash market is over $50-billion (U.S.) annually and growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of close to 5 per cent. Annual lithium demand is now estimated to be over one million tonnes globally and continuing to grow rapidly.

Qualified person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dean Besserer, PGeo, the chief operations officer of the company and a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.

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