Highlights

• Volt Resources' US subsidiary, Volt Energy Materials LLC, has signed a five-year Lease for a 465 square metre Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, to establish its R&D and Customer Application Center.

• The center will support customer engagement, product sampling and qualification, high-purity graphite synthesis, characterisation, process optimisation, and technology transfer to the planned US Graphite Refinery.

• The site selection finalises a process announced in April 2026 during which four potential Alabama locations were evaluated, with the Bessemer premises chosen for its industrial zoning and proximity to compatible industrial neighbours.

• Volt is progressing a Definitive Feasibility Study for its US Graphite Refinery in Alabama, with planned completion by the fourth quarter of 2026.

Volt Resources Limited (ASX:VRC), an ASX-listed critical minerals and advanced materials company trading under the ticker VRC, announced on 12 November 2026 that its wholly owned US subsidiary, Volt Energy Materials LLC, had executed a five-year lease for a 465 square metre facility in Bessemer, Alabama. The premises will serve as the company's R&D and Customer Application Center in the United States — a dedicated technical base designed to bridge the gap between Upstream graphite production and the downstream, high-value applications that the company is targeting through its planned US Graphite Refinery. The signing of the lease marks a progression from site evaluation to operational establishment in the United States, a Jurisdiction where domestic Demand for high-purity graphite materials is growing rapidly amid the broader buildout of battery Supply chains and energy storage infrastructure.

Significance of the Alabama R&D Center

The Bessemer facility, which is located in an industrial area with neighbouring chemical companies and is zoned for light Manufacturing and light industrial use, will serve multiple interrelated commercial and technical functions. Customer engagement activities, including product sampling, qualification testing, and collaborative development of graphite product specifications tailored to individual customer requirements, will be a central focus of the center. This customer-facing function is essential for a company seeking to establish commercial relationships with battery manufacturers and other technology companies ahead of its refinery coming online. Alongside this commercial role, the center will host high-purity graphite and ultra-high-purity graphite synthesis and characterisation activities, process optimisation work, and the development of intellectual property that can be transferred to and scaled up at the planned full-scale refinery. The facility also provides a platform for evaluating new graphite applications, an important capability as the range of end uses for graphite materials continues to expand across energy storage, aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, and other sectors.

Facility Details and Planned Capabilities

The establishment of the Alabama R&D center is an integral part of Volt's broader US strategy, which centres on the development of a High Purity Graphite Refinery in Alabama. A graphite refinery scoping study completed in mid-2025 confirmed the economic case for the project on a staged development basis, and the company is now progressing a Definitive Feasibility Study with planned completion in the fourth quarter of 2026. Volt's engagement with the Bessemer Industrial Development Board, announced in October 2026, reflects the company's intent to Leverage available local incentives and permitting support mechanisms in Alabama, a state that has been active in attracting critical minerals and battery materials Investment as part of the broader US industrial policy landscape. Any incentives or assistance remain subject to assessment and negotiation, as indicated by the company in its disclosure.

US Graphite Refinery Strategy and Global Portfolio

Volt Resources operates across multiple Business lines and geographies, reflecting its origins as a graphite Mining and processing company and its evolution toward an advanced materials developer. The company holds a 70% interest in the Zavalievsky Graphite business in Ukraine, which continues to produce graphite concentrate and high-purity graphite despite challenging conditions. It also holds lithium-borate licence applications in Serbia and gold project interests in Guinea, West Africa. The US subsidiary, headquartered at the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Alabama, is focused on the Downstream graphite processing business where the company sees the greatest near-term value creation opportunity. The signing of the five-year lease is a tangible step toward converting the technical and commercial infrastructure necessary to commercialise Volt's graphite processing technology in one of the world's largest markets for advanced battery materials and high-purity industrial graphite. Looking at the competitive landscape, the development of domestic high-purity graphite processing capability in the United States is a space that has attracted considerable interest from multiple participants, as the country seeks to build resilient supply chains for battery materials and advanced industrial graphite that do not rely on a single dominant source of supply. For Volt Resources, the establishment of a dedicated R&D and Customer Application Center positions the company as an early mover in building that domestic capability, with the facility providing both the technical infrastructure and the customer engagement platform needed to demonstrate commercial readiness ahead of the full-scale refinery. The five-year lease term provides a stable operational horizon for the center's activities, giving management and customers confidence that the technical base in Bessemer will remain active and operational across the period during which the DFS is completed and the refinery development proceeds through its next investment decision milestones. The establishment of the Alabama R&D center is also strategically significant in the context of US industrial policy, which has placed increasing emphasis on the domestic production and processing of critical minerals — including graphite — to reduce dependence on supply chains centred in other jurisdictions. Policy support mechanisms, including the potential availability of incentives through the Bessemer Industrial Development Board, could reduce the net cost of establishing and operating the facility and accelerate the technology development timeline. For a company at the stage of building its US technical capabilities, the ability to demonstrate domestic graphite processing expertise and the capacity to meet customer qualification requirements is an important prerequisite for securing long-term commercial agreements that would underpin the Economics of the full-scale refinery. The signing of the five-year lease is therefore not merely an administrative step but a commercial and strategic signal that Volt Energy Materials is establishing a durable US presence in the graphite processing sector.

Key Insights

Volt Resources operates across multiple business lines and geographies, reflecting its origins as a graphite mining and processing company and its evolution toward an advanced materials developer. The company holds a 70% interest in the Zavalievsky Graphite business in Ukraine, which continues to produce graphite concentrate and high-purity graphite despite challenging conditions. It also holds lithium-borate licence applications in Serbia and gold project interests in Guinea, West Africa. The US subsidiary, headquartered at the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Alabama, is focused on the downstream graphite processing business where the company sees the greatest near-term value creation opportunity. The signing of the five-year lease is a tangible step toward converting the technical and commercial infrastructure necessary to commercialise Volt's graphite processing technology in one of the world's largest markets for advanced battery materials and high-purity industrial graphite. Looking at the competitive landscape, the development of domestic high-purity graphite processing capability in the United States is a space that has attracted considerable interest from multiple participants, as the country seeks to build resilient supply chains for battery materials and advanced industrial graphite that do not rely on a single dominant source of supply. For Volt Resources, the establishment of a dedicated R&D and Customer Application Center positions the company as an early mover in building that domestic capability, with the facility providing both the technical infrastructure and the customer engagement platform needed to demonstrate commercial readiness ahead of the full-scale refinery. The five-year lease term provides a stable operational horizon for the center's activities, giving management and customers confidence that the technical base in Bessemer will remain active and operational across the period during which the DFS is completed and the refinery development proceeds through its next investment decision milestones. The establishment of the Alabama R&D center is also strategically significant in the context of US industrial policy, which has placed increasing emphasis on the domestic production and processing of critical minerals — including graphite — to reduce dependence on supply chains centred in other jurisdictions. Policy support mechanisms, including the potential availability of incentives through the Bessemer Industrial Development Board, could reduce the net cost of establishing and operating the facility and accelerate the technology development timeline. For a company at the stage of building its US technical capabilities, the ability to demonstrate domestic graphite processing expertise and the capacity to meet customer qualification requirements is an important prerequisite for securing long-term commercial agreements that would underpin the economics of the full-scale refinery. The signing of the five-year lease is therefore not merely an administrative step but a commercial and strategic signal that Volt Energy Materials is establishing a durable US presence in the graphite processing sector.