Mr. Simon Marcotte reports

BLACK SWAN GRAPHENE ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN NERD AND ROGER BULLIVANT, A VINCI GROUP COMPANY

Black Swan Graphene Inc.'s partner, Nationwide Engineering Research and Development or NERD, the maker of concretene, a graphene-enhanced concrete admixture, has executed a development agreement with Roger Bullivant Ltd. Roger Bullivant is part of Soletanche Bachy, a foundations company and part of VINCI, the French construction, infrastructure and energy group of companies with 60 billion euros in annual revenue. The agreement aims to begin commercial deliveries in Q4 of 2024.

Support for the project from Roger Bullivant includes a proposal for establishment of a concretene pilot manufacturing plant at its headquarters in the United Kingdom. This pilot manufacturing plant should enable NERD to prove the viability of its manufacturing proposition toward much wider scale-up and rollout to the United Kingdom and international concrete industry.

Black Swan estimates that the initial pilot production level would already necessitate approximately half of its graphene production capacity from its facility in Consett, United Kingdom, and would rapidly grow to much higher levels if the commercial rollout evolves successfully.

David Clement, Roger Bullivant managing director, commented: "Our precast foundation systems, manufactured using low-carbon concrete, are an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional methods. As part of Soletanche Bachy and VINCI, we have an ambitious target to reduce our concrete and cement-related CO2 emissions by 40 per cent by 2030. This exciting R&D initiative in partnership with concretene is the next step in our carbon reduction journey and is a critical element of our sustainability strategy."

Mike Harrison, chief operating officer of NERD, commented, "This is another significant step on our journey to commercialization of our product and we are delighted to be working with the team at Roger Bullivant."

Simon Marcotte, president and chief executive officer of Black Swan, commented: "Due to the size of this promising market, utilizing graphene in concrete has long been regarded as the holy grail of graphene applications. However, very few have been successful at mastering this intricate process. We are extremely excited to have NERD as a partner which has, time and time again, demonstrated the functionality, effectiveness and desirability of its concrete admixture."

Funding for the precast project, worth 1.21 million pounds sterling and starting immediately, is provided by Innovate UK under its SMART grant, which supports SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and industrial partners in developing disruptive innovations with potential for rapid economic return to the United Kingdom.

In March, 2023, Black Swan, NERD and ARUP Group announced strategic partnerships, part of an integrated supply chain, to accelerate the adoption of graphene-enhanced concrete globally. Black Swan and NERD also formalized an equity swap and a supply agreement. See press release dated March 27, 2023.

Concretene admixture

The construction industry faces an urgent problem regarding its carbon footprint, with concrete accounting for more than 7 per cent of all global carbon dioxide emissions, principally from energy cost in the manufacture of cement. Legislation to decarbonize the industry is already driving decision-making on planning and budgets, and with existing cement replacement technologies becoming increasingly unsustainable, a new solution is required to reduce embodied carbon in the built environment.

Developed by NERD in partnership with the University of Manchester's Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), concretene is a graphene-enhanced admixture for concrete, engineered to improve performance and sustainability.

The technology improves the microstructure of concrete, significantly increasing compressive, tensile and flexural strength, reducing curing periods, microcracking and permeability. NERD's aim is for a 30-per-cent improvement in concrete performance, dependent on application, and proportionally decreased embodied carbon on construction projects.

About Black Swan Graphene Inc.

Black Swan is focused on the large-scale production and commercialization of patented high-performance and low-cost graphene products aimed at several industrial sectors, including concrete, polymers, lithium-ion batteries and others, which are expected to require large volumes of graphene. Black Swan aims to leverage the low cost and green hydroelectricity of the province of Quebec as well as the proximity of the province's emerging graphite industry in order to establish an integrated supply chain, reduce overall costs and accelerate the deployment of graphene usage. On March 27, 2023, Black Swan, Nationwide Engineering Research and Development and Arup Group Ltd. announced strategic partnerships, establishing a fully integrated supply chain and providing a turnkey solution for the construction and concrete industries. Arup is a multinational engineering consultancy headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with 18,000 experts working across 140 countries. Black Swan's graphene processing technology was developed by Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. over the last decade. Thomas Swan is a United Kingdom-based global chemicals manufacturer, with a century-long record and has been at the forefront of graphene innovation.

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