Mr. Richard Pearce reports

SOUTH STAR BATTERY METALS ANNOUNCES COMMENCEMENT OF PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT FOR THE BAMASTAR GRAPHITE PROJECT IN COOSA COUNTY, ALABAMA, USA

South Star Battery Metals Corp. has awarded contracts for the National Instrument 43-101 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the BamaStar graphite project. The interdisciplinary team of consultants, engineers and scientists is co-led by Dorfner Anzaplan GmbH and Lycopodium Ltd. The PEA is anticipated to be completed and published in July, 2024. With the recent mineral lease and surface rights extensions, South Star has successfully completed all the other requirements for BamaStar's option agreement, and preparing the PEA is the final milestone that will give the company the right to acquire an undivided 75-per-cent legal and beneficial interest in and to the minerals, mining rights and the underlying agreements for the mine.

The PEA will incorporate the company's 2023 drill program results, providing an update to the maiden mineral resource estimate for the BamaStar project. The study's techno-economic analysis will present a scenario with concentrates from both BamaStar and Santa Cruz providing feedstocks for the secondary processed, specialty-graphite products. The study will outline the strategic production/commercial plan for South Star's planned downstream transformation plant for the manufacturing of battery-graphite and other specialty-graphite commercial products, in the southeastern United States.

Additionally, senior representatives of the company have engaged and met with numerous senior economic-development representatives for states in the region, including Alabama and Louisiana. The team has commenced a site-selection process to determine the most advantageous location for siting South Star's planned downstream transformation plant to produce coated spherical purified graphite (CSPG) for lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery applications, in addition to conductivity-enhancement products suited for numerous battery chemistries, and other unique and innovative products.

Richard Pearce, chief executive officer of South Star, commented: "We are pleased to kick off the PEA for BamaStar and to advance the project together with our partners. The PEA is expected to take approximately three to four months to complete, and we believe it will present a robust scenario with two scalable mines producing high-quality concentrates and a value-add plant in the middle of one of the most critical EV, defence and energy storage corridors in the U.S. At a time of increasing geopolitical risks and supply chain concerns regarding critical metals and the energy transition, it's great to be one of the first movers advancing a phased, vertically integrated graphite supply chain with near-term production and high-quality assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions in the Americas."

In addition, 10 kilograms of Santa Cruz material is being tested as part of continuing characterization and optimization of the Santa Cruz graphite concentrates for battery applications for the company's U.S. downstream transformational technologies technical program. Currently, Santa Cruz graphite concentrate is being analyzed, purified, transformed and upgraded to produce a variety of different products, including CSPG.

As part of that continuing characterization, the as-received Santa Cruz graphite concentrate was recently imaged using scanning electron microscop (SEM).

About South Star Battery Metals Corp

South Star Battery Metals is a Canadian battery metals project developer focused on the selective acquisition and development of near-term production projects in the Americas. South Star's Santa Cruz graphite project, located in southern Bahia, Brazil, is the first of a series of industrial and battery metals projects that will be put into production. Brazil is the second-largest graphite-producing region in the world with more than 80 years of continuous mining. Santa Cruz has at-surface mineralization in friable materials, and successful large-scale pilot-plant testing (greater than 30 tonnes) has been completed. The results of the testing show that approximately 65 per cent of graphite concentrate is plus-80 mesh with good recoveries and 95 per cent to 99 per cent graphitic carbon (Cg). With excellent infrastructure and logistics, South Star is fully financed for phase 1, and the construction and commissioning are under way. Santa Cruz will be the first new graphite production in the Americas since 1996, with phase 1 commercial production projected in Q2 2024. Phase 2 production (25,000 tonnes per annum) is partially financed and planned for 2026, while phase 3 (50,000 tpa) is scheduled for 2028.

We seek Safe Harbor.