The Fort Worth Press - 5E Advanced Materials Provides Additional Details on Integration and Expected Financial Impact of Searles Valley Asset Acquisition

HESPERIA, CA / ACCESS Newswire / October 7, 2026 / 5E Advanced Materials, Inc. ("5E" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:FEAM) today provided additional details regarding its previously announced acquisition of the Searles Valley Minerals assets, including the transaction structure, current operating profile, integration priorities and expected financial contribution. With the acquisition, 5E has transitioned from a development stage company to an operator of an established industrial and critical mineral platform with near term revenue, an experienced workforce and a defined operating plan targeting approximately $40 million of steady-state annual Adjusted EBITDA under its base plan.

Key Highlights of the Transaction

• Transforms 5E into a revenue-generating American producer of boron and other critical minerals, adding an established operating platform, infrastructure and workforce to the Company's portfolio.
• Acquired the Searles Valley operating platform through a court-supervised Section 363 sale, free and clear of specified legacy liabilities, including the predecessor's debt capital structure and specified historical claims.
• Reset the commercial foundation of the business, including new take-or-pay and fixed-price V-BOR® offtake agreements, increasing netbacks by more than 65%, compared with the approximately $424 per short ton realized under predecessor contracts.
• Targets approximately $40 million of consolidated steady-state annual Adjusted EBITDA under its base plan, driven by three principal operating levers: contract repricing, cost reduction, and volume recovery with byproduct contribution.
• Maintains significant critical-minerals optionality outside the base plan, including opportunities in borates, sulfate of potash, lithium and tungsten.

Paul Weibel, Chief Executive Officer of 5E, stated, "This transaction is the single largest step this Company has taken toward its mission. We have gone from a developer with a great deposit and a commercial plan, to a producer with immediate revenue, an experienced workforce, multiple operating plants and products, and a credible, identified path to approximately $40 million of steady-state annual Adjusted EBITDA under our base plan. We bought the operating platform, not the old balance sheet, and we did not pay for the tungsten, lithium or boron-expansion optionality. Our immediate focus is on operating the assets, delivering against the commercial reset and executing the identified path to profitability. At the same time, we believe we have significant opportunities to expand the value of the platform beyond our base plan."

Transaction Structure and Consideration

The acquisition was completed through a court-supervised Section 363 sale. Total consideration consisted of approximately $3.4 million in cash, 8,300,000 shares of the Company's common stock, an unsecured five-year promissory note of approximately $6.22 million issued by a Company subsidiary, and the assumption of specified liabilities.

Under the transaction structure, identified legacy liabilities - including California Air Resources Board greenhouse-gas allowance obligations, the predecessor's debt capital structure and specified historical claims - remained with the sellers' estates and did not transfer to 5E.

Province, LLC and RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisors, and Latham & Watkins LLP and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP acted as legal counsel to 5E in connection with the Acquisition.

The Searles Valley Operating Platform

The acquisition provides 5E with an operating industrial and critical mineral complex at Searles Lake, California, including:

• An experienced workforce of approximately 257 employees;
• Three processing sites;
• 54 megawatts of on-site cogeneration capacity;
• The Trona Railway short-line railroad;
• A water utility;
• Mineral tenure across more than 9,000 acres; and
• A long-dated mineral resource supporting the Company's current operating plan.

The Company is now focused on integrating the acquired operations into 5E, stabilizing production, implementing commercial and cost resets and returning production toward targeted operating levels.

A Reset of Commercial and Operating Foundations

A key component of the Company's base plan is the replacement of legacy below-market sales contracts rejected in the bankruptcy process with new take-or-pay and fixed-price V-BOR^® offtake agreements.

The new agreements target increasing netbacks more than 65% above the roughly $424 per short ton realized under predecessor contracts. The Company expects the repricing to improve the economics of the existing production base without requiring new capital investment to generate the associated benefit.

In parallel, 5E is implementing a reset cost structure, including the planned decoupling of the West End plant's power load from purchased power and increased utilization of the site's existing 54 megawatts of cogeneration capacity. The Company is targeting approximately $13.8 million of annual OPEX savings of purchased-power savings following completion of the planned switching work, which is expected to require approximately $0.5 million of capital.

Path to Approximately $40 Million of Steady-State Adjusted EBITDA

The Company expects positive consolidated Adjusted EBITDA in year two following the acquisition, as the identified operating initiatives are implemented and benefits phase in over time. The Company does not expect to realize the full benefit of these initiatives during the current fiscal year.

Under its base plan, the Company targets approximately $40 million of steady-state consolidated annual Adjusted EBITDA. Management has identified three principal operating levers expected to drive the improvement from the business as acquired to the steady-state target: contract repricing, cost reductions and volume recovery with byproduct contribution.

Importantly, the $40 million base plan does not include any contribution from the Company's identified tungsten, lithium, sulfate of potash or borates-expansion opportunities. These opportunities represent additional potential beyond the base plan and are not required to achieve the Company's steady-state Adjusted EBITDA target.

1. Contract Repricing - Approximately $22 Million

The new take-or-pay and fixed-price V-BOR^® offtake agreements are expected to increase the realized netback greater than 65% on a per ton basis, compared with approximately $424 per short ton under predecessor contracts.

The Company expects the commercial reset to provide an approximately $22 million annual contribution to steady-state Adjusted EBITDA, subject to production volumes and the timing of contract implementation.

2. Cost Reset - Approximately $10 Million

The Company expects approximately $10 million of annual steady-state benefit from a reset cost structure, including grid decoupling, organizational and procurement efficiencies and the elimination of duplicative corporate costs. Much of the cost reduction has already been substantially achieved through the bankruptcy process and rejection of legacy contracts.

The grid decoupling initiative is expected to shift the West End plant's power load onto the site's existing 54 megawatts of cogeneration capacity, targeting approximately $13.8 million in annual OPEX savings following completion of the required switching work.

3. Volume Recovery and Byproducts - Approximately $33 Million

The Company expects approximately $33 million of annual steady-state contribution from the recovery of V-BOR® production toward approximately 100,000 short tons annually, together with incremental byproduct contribution.

Current V-BOR® production is approximately 82,000 short tons on an annualized basis. The Company expects production to increase through the targeted restart of the SAC plant, which is expected to restore brine chemistry and yield, as well as through a funded, engineering-led wellfield development program intended to recover brine grade toward historical levels.

The SAC restart is also expected to enable incremental sodium bicarbonate production, while the Company expects continued contributions from sodium sulfate and salt production and additional boric acid production utilizing primary borax volumes in excess of V-BOR^® processing capacity.

Financing and Liquidity

The transaction is supported by the Company's existing balance sheet, including approximately $15 million cash, and a $10.0 million senior bridge facility provided by the prior owner of Searles Valley, of which $7 million has already been funded.

The Company's go-forward financing plan contemplates a working-capital debt facility supported by its contracted offtake structure. The Company currently estimates a peak pre-financing capital need of approximately $24 million during the first year and intends to explore all financing options, with a focus on minimizing cost of capital and providing a smooth execution of the plan.

Growth and Critical-Minerals Optionality

The Searles Valley platform provides 5E with additional opportunities to increase production, expand its product portfolio and develop additional critical-minerals resources. Importantly, none of these opportunities is included in the Company's $40 million steady-state base plan.

Potential areas of future development include:

• Borates expansion, including opportunities to increase production and processing capacity;
• Sulfate of potash, leveraging the Searles Valley resource and existing operating infrastructure;
• Lithium, including further evaluation of the installed direct lithium extraction pilot; and
• Tungsten, based on historical research into tungsten contained in Searles Lake brines.

The Company intends to evaluate these opportunities in parallel with its immediate focus on stabilizing and optimizing the acquired operations.

The Tungsten Opportunity

Searles Lake brines contain tungsten that was the subject of more than three decades of industrial and federal research, including pilot-scale ion-exchange recovery campaigns by GTE Laboratories and the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

A 1985 U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations described Searles Lake as the largest known domestic tungsten resource and estimated approximately 135 million pounds of contained tungsten. Investors are cautioned that this is a historical estimate prepared before adoption of S-K 1300 standards. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve, and the Company is not treating it as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. Further evaluations, including sampling, metallurgical work, engineering, and an updated technical and economic assessment, would be required before any such classification could be made.

The Company intends to advance its evaluation of the tungsten opportunity in parallel with its operational reset and will report results as work is completed. No tungsten contribution is included in the Company's $40 million base plan.

Conference Call Information

The Company hosted a special conference call and shareholder update on October 6, 2026, to discuss the completed acquisition, the operating plan, and the Company's integration priorities. The replay and accompanying presentation are available in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website. The Company's Current Report on Form 8-K, including the asset purchase agreement, is available at the same location.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release references Adjusted EBITDA, a financial measure not calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA as used herein is defined as modeled revenue less variable cost, fixed operating cost, and selling, general and administrative expenses. This measure may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies and should not be viewed as a substitute for measures reported under U.S. GAAP. The Company has not provided a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the Company's most comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, as such GAAP measure is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort. Specifically, the Company could not calculate interest, income taxes, depreciation or the effect of certain corporate level transactions or activities, on a forward-looking basis with any reasonable degree of accuracy, but such items could be significant and have a material impact on the Company's net income.

About 5E Advanced Materials, Inc.

5E Advanced Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:FEAM) is an emerging producer focused on becoming a vertically integrated global leader and supplier of refined borates and advanced boron materials, complemented by calcium-based co-products, and potentially other by-products such as lithium carbonate. The Company's mission is to become a supplier of these critical materials to industries addressing global decarbonization, energy independence, food, national security, and the defense sector. The Company believes factors such as government regulation and incentives focused on domestic manufacturing and supply chains and capital investments across industries will drive demand for end-use applications like solar and wind energy infrastructure, neodymium-iron-boron magnets, defense applications, lithium-ion batteries, and other critical material applications. The business is based on two large domestic boron resources in Southern California: Fort Cady, which is designated as Critical Infrastructure by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Company's Searles Valley operations, a producing borate facility at Searles Lake acquired in 2026. Boron was added to the U.S. Department of the Interior's 2025 Critical Minerals List.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "could," "intend," "target," "project," "contemplate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions, and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's transition to a revenue-generating producer following its acquisition of Searles Valley (the "Acquisition"), the Company's operating plan for Searles Valley, including the optimization of operations, the rebuilding of borate production and pricing, near-term production and long-term growth potential, positioning 5E to serve growing demand for boron and critical materials, cost and volume initiatives, expected revenue generation and financial statement impact, and the timing for achieving such revenue and impact, the anticipated benefits of integrating Searles Valley's production capabilities, customer base and infrastructure with Fort Cady, additional growth opportunities within the acquired asset base, expectations regarding the advancement, development and financing of Fort Cady, 5E's longer-term strategy to expand across boron, advanced boron materials, calcium-based co-products, potential by-products such as lithium carbonate and other critical mineral products, and anticipated borate supply, end-use demand and market opportunity, including the effect of government regulation, incentives and capital investment on such demand. Any forward-looking statements are based on 5E's current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially.

These risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks relating to environmental and regulatory obligations associated with the acquired assets, including the scope of liabilities assumed by the Company and any obligations that were not extinguished through the Section 363 sale process; the risk that any sale order entered by the Bankruptcy Court is subject to objection, appeal, modification, stay or reversal; risks relating to the indebtedness and other financing incurred in connection with the Acquisition, including the Company's ability to service, refinance or repay such obligations on acceptable terms; the risk that Searles Valley's historical operating results are not indicative of future performance; the risk that the Company is unable to rebuild borate production or implement its pricing, cost and volume initiatives on the anticipated timeline or at all; the risk that the anticipated benefits, revenue contribution or cost efficiencies of the Acquisition are not realized on the expected timeline or at all; risks relating to the integration of the acquired assets and operations, including the retention of Searles Valley's customers, suppliers and key personnel; risks relating to the operating, production, environmental, permitting and reclamation obligations associated with an operating asset; the risk that 5E requires additional capital to advance Fort Cady and that such capital is unavailable on acceptable terms, or at all, notwithstanding any cash flow contributed by the acquired assets; and risks relating to boron and critical minerals demand, pricing and end-use markets, including changes in government policy, regulation or incentives. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in 5E's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Current Reports on Form 8-K and its other reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on information available to 5E as of the date hereof and are made only as of the date of this release. 5E undertakes no obligation to update such information except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing 5E's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged not to rely on any forward-looking statement in reaching any conclusion or making any investment decision about any securities of 5E.

For further information, contact:

Investor Relations
Brett Maas
Hayden IR, LLC
[email protected]
Ph: +1 (480) 861-2425

Media Relations
Paola Ashton
PRA Communications
[email protected]
Ph: +1 (604) 681-1407

SOURCE: 5E Advanced Materials, Inc.

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M.T.Smith--TFWP