Mr. Moe Jiwan reports

ZENTEK FORMS U.S. JOINT VENTURE TO POSITION ITS ALBANY ULTRA-HIGH-PURITY GRAPHITE IN THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIONAL-SECURITY SUPPLY CHAIN

Zentek Ltd. has formed Strategic Graphite Partners LLC, a joint venture with ALO Graphite Partners LLC.

Joint venture structure and terms

Strategic Graphite Partners was formed to establish a United States footprint for Zentek's Albany ultrahigh-purity graphite in energy, defence and national-security markets. The JV is 90 per cent owned by Zentek USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zentek and 10 per cent owned by ALO Partners, a company owned and controlled by Perkin Industries and Jeremy Roenick.

The JV's initial mandate is to support U.S. customer engagement and material qualification, offtake discussions, strategic industry engagement, U.S. government relations, and the evaluation of potential U.S. federal and allied government funding opportunities for allied-sourced Albany material. Albany has not been contributed to the JV.

In connection with the arrangement, Zentek has entered into consulting agreements with Mr. Roenick and Nicolas Perkin to support the company and the JV with strategic industry engagement, U.S. government relations and related services. Pursuant to the company's omnibus long-term incentive plan, Zentek has granted each consultant 50,000 stock options, exercisable for 24 months at a price of 56 cents per common share. The options vest in tranches based on ALO Partners achieving aggregate capital contribution milestones to the JV.

A North American solution to an allied-sourcing gap

Graphite is a designated critical mineral in the United States, Canada and allied nations, and is classified among U.S. strategic defence critical minerals.

"Strategic Graphite Partners gives allied-sourced Albany material a footprint inside the U.S. value chain, where it can be qualified by U.S. customers and emerging government-supported programs," said Moe Jiwan, chief executive officer of Zentek. "Albany remains a 100 per cent Zentek-owned Canadian asset."

About Zentek Ltd.

Zentek is a Canadian intellectual property development and commercialization company advancing a portfolio of graphene-enabled and advanced material technologies across clean air, next-generation materials and critical minerals. Core platforms are Albany Graphite, ZenGUARD and Triera. Albany is the principal critical minerals asset, advancing toward a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) targeted for completion in summer 2026.

We seek Safe Harbor.