Mr. Michael Rowley reports

STILLWATER CRITICAL MINERALS PROVIDES UPDATE ON U.S. FEDERAL FUNDING APPLICATIONS

Stillwater Critical Minerals Corp. has provided an overview and status update on its continuing applications for additional United States government grant funding, highlighting its potential to play a pivotal role in strengthening domestic critical mineral supply chains.

Recognizing the increasing geopolitical risks to global supply chains of critical minerals, the United States government has steadily expanded its mandate to build domestic supply chains. Priority has been given to securing U.S. inventories and processing capacity for 50 critical minerals that have been recognized as being essential to the economy and security of the U.S. which are currently sourced primarily from other countries. Recent federal initiatives, including the establishment of the strategic and critical materials board of directors by the Department of Defense (DoD), demonstrate bipartisan commitment to addressing supply chain vulnerabilities for listed materials.

Stillwater is uniquely positioned to contribute significantly to U.S. supplies with a world-class inventory of critical minerals in the historically productive Stillwater complex in Montana. The company's flagship Stillwater West project in south-central Montana is immediately adjacent to Sibanye-Stillwater's operating mines and processing complex. Mining and processing of critical minerals in the Stillwater district dates back to the 1880s and includes the production of chromium in the 1940s and 1950s, at times with government subsidies. At present, Sibanye is the largest global producer of platinum group metals outside Russia and South Africa. Building further on the importance of the Stillwater complex, the Stillwater West project hosts nine metals that have been listed as critical in the U.S., including the largest nickel resource in an active U.S. mining jurisdiction, along with substantial inventories of copper, cobalt, palladium, platinum, rhodium and chromium, in addition to as-yet-unquantified amounts of ruthenium and iridium. As such, Stillwater West is considered by the company to be central to the strategy of securing domestic supply of critical minerals in the U.S. and reducing the reliance on foreign imports of these metals.

For example, the United States currently has just one operating nickel mine, the Eagle mine in Michigan. The Eagle mine produces a small fraction of the nation's nickel consumption and ships concentrate globally due to the absence of nickel processing in the U.S., highlighting the urgent need to develop domestic nickel sources and processing capacity. This challenge is similar for the eight other critical minerals that are hosted at Stillwater West, underscoring the need to advance the project to production to support the growing demand for minerals that are essential to both energy transition and national security.

Federal funding applications and industry engagement

In 2024, the company achieved a number of important milestones to position itself for additional funding opportunities and further highlight the company's alignment with federal priorities:

• Submission of a comprehensive white paper titled "Expansion of the U.S. Critical Minerals Supply Chain for Nickel, Cobalt, Platinum Group Elements, Copper and Chromium."
• Application for funding under open announcement 24-01 from the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), which focuses on bolstering domestic production of critical minerals. The Department of Defense has released this open announcement through the Defense Industrial Base Consortium Other Transaction Authority that accepted unsolicited white papers to be considered for Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III and Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment funding. As of November, 2024, the company was notified by the DIBC that the submission was under evaluation.
• Over the past four years, the DoD has invested more than $870-million (U.S.) via DPA Title III to bolster North American supplies of critical minerals. Title III dates from 1950 and is separate from additional incentives for domestic production in the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Commenced work as the industry partner with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with $2-million (U.S.) in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy via the Advanced Research Projects Agency program (ARPA-E). The grant is in addition to an earlier grant from ARPA-E which was secured in collaboration with Cornell University, for total combined grant funding of $2.75-million (U.S.) (see news releases Aug. 15, 2024, and Feb. 14, 2023).
• Continued engagement with the U.S. Geological Survey, who have been studying the Stillwater igneous complex for decades due to its critical mineral potential as one of the world's largest layered ultramafic complexes.
• Secured a second investment by global mining giant Glencore and strengthened the corporate team with their addition to the company's board of directors, in addition to Glencore's continued contribution to the Stillwater West technical committee.
• Increased presence and engagement in the local community, as well as key industry organizations including the DIBC, National Mining Association, Montana Mining Association, Montana Chamber of Commerce and Stillwater County Chamber of Commerce, among others.

Michael Rowley, president and chief executive officer, commented: "We are very encouraged by the positive reception and shared vision we received in our many meetings with U.S. politicians and government officials in 2024, including senators and congressmen from the great state of Montana. The bipartisan support we saw for critical minerals production at our neighbour Sibanye's mine complex was also very encouraging and speaks to the long and prosperous legacy of responsible mining that the Stillwater district is known for. We have applied to the U.S. government for substantial grant funding to accelerate the advancement of Stillwater West to become a cornerstone of U.S. critical mineral supply as the country moves quickly to reduce its dependence on imports."

Upcoming events

Stillwater's president and chief executive officer, Michael Rowley, will be available at the following events in 2025, in addition to other events to be added over the coming year:

1. AME Roundup -- Vancouver, B.C., Canada Jan. 20 to Jan. 23, 2025;
2. 121 Mining Events -- Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. 3 to Feb. 4, 2025;
3. Mining Indaba -- Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. 3 to Feb. 6, 2025;
4. Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Conference (PDAC) -- Toronto, Ont., Canada, March 2 to March 5, 2025;
5. The Mining Investment Event of the North -- Quebec City, Que., Canada, June 3 to June 5, 2025.

About Stillwater Critical Minerals Corp.

Stillwater Critical Minerals is a mineral exploration company focused on its flagship Stillwater West Ni-PGE-Cu-Co plus Au (nickel-platinum-group-elements-copper-cobalt plus gold) project in the iconic and famously productive Stillwater mining district in Montana, United States. With the addition of two renowned Bushveld and Platreef geologists to the team and strategic investments by Glencore PLC, the company is well positioned to advance the next phase of large-scale critical mineral supply from this world-class American district, building on past production of nickel, copper and chromium, and the continuing production of platinum group, nickel and other metals by neighboring Sibanye-Stillwater. An expanded National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource estimate, released January, 2023, positions Stillwater West with the largest nickel resource in an active United States mining district as part of a compelling suite of nine minerals now listed as critical in the U.S.

Stillwater also holds the high-grade Drayton-Black Lake gold project adjacent to Nexgold Mining's development-stage Goliath gold complex in Northwestern Ontario, currently under an earn-in agreement with Heritage Mining, and the Kluane PGE-Ni-Cu-Co critical minerals project on trend with Nickel Creek Platinum's Wellgreen deposit in Canada's Yukon Territory. The company also holds the Duke Island Cu-Ni-PGE property in Alaska, now subject to an LOI (letter of intent) toward an earn-in agreement with Granite Creek Copper, and maintains a back-in right on the high-grade past-producing Yankee-Dundee in British Columbia, following its sale in 2013.

Quality control and quality assurance

Mike Ostenson, PGeo, managing geologist at Stillwater, is the qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, and he has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

We seek Safe Harbor.