Mr. Lee Barker reports

SPARTON RESOURCES ANNOUNCES MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS FOR VRB ENERGY

Sparton Resources Inc. has noted that Ivanhoe Electric Inc. announced today that VRB Energy Inc. is planning to expand vanadium flow battery manufacturing into the United States and that its existing operations in China will become subject to a 51/49 joint venture following an investment from Red Sun, a leading Asian new energy group.

Sparton's interest in the flow battery industry is a 9.975-per-cent interest in VRB Energy held through Sparton's 90-per-cent interest in VanSpar Mining Inc. Full information regarding the history of the company's VRB Energy investment is available in its various news releases and corporate filings available on SEDAR+ and on the Sparton website.

VRB Energy will establish VRB USA, located in Arizona, to pursue domestic manufacturing of vanadium redox flow battery systems. The domestic facility will be capable of producing 50 megawatts per year of VRB Energy storage systems vanadium flow batteries. The VRB Energy battery system cell stacks have received an Underwriters Laboratories 1973 safety certificate which is recognized as a global standard for commercially available battery energy storage.

A co-operation agreement will ensure patent protection and will allow VRB USA to maintain access to intellectual property and associated rights as well as obtain the benefits of product improvements. The Chinese operations will also become a preferred supplier of certain key components.

Also announced, is an investment by Red Sun of $55-million (U.S.), of which $35-million (U.S.) is toward a 51-per-cent participation in the existing VRB Energy operations in China. The joint venture is being formed to manufacture and sell vanadium redox flow battery systems with a market focus in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. A total of $20-million (U.S.) of the transaction proceeds will support the establishment of the VRB USA operations.

Red Sun is a private investment group based in Shanxi province, China, which focuses on investments in new energy and energy storage technology, biomedicine and high-end agriculture.

Details of the transactions, which are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, will be set out in an agreement to be filed by parent company Ivanhoe Electric with the securities regulators. A link to the full Ivanhoe Electric release is included in the original version of this news release.

"Company CEO A. Lee Barker remarked that the expansion by VRB Energy into the U.S. is in itself an exciting new development. The additional participation by Red Sun in China, with the infusion of capital and collateral elements, should result in new marketing and sales initiatives in the Asia and internationally. These are all viewed as positive developments in the commercialization of VRB Energy's vanadium flow batteries."

We seek Safe Harbor.