ExSorbtion

Environmentally Friendly, Fastest to

Production, and Lowest Cost Direct
Lithium Extraction Solution.

EXSORBTION INC., PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL 1

Not to be shared or distributed without written consent from ExSorbtion Inc.
 • Patented sorbents and process to
enable low-cost, fast and green lithium
extraction from brines
• Multi-year head start over competition
in both process development & testing
a variety of lithium containing brines
• Lithium-ion batteries are now the default
choice, leading to increasing demand for
lithium
• Legacy processes such as mining,
evaporation ponds for lithium
production very expensive, slow & toxic
• Produced water / Brine has lithium
which can cost-effectively be extracted
using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE)
• Opportunity to convert produced water
from a liability (cost) to an asset (revenue
stream) for oilfield & geothermal sectors
• Technology developed by a
Technology? Who? team of leading material and
process scientists at SRI
International (who now work
with ExSorbtion)
• ExSorbtion acquired the
technology including all
patents from SRI
Why? How?
• Demonstrated Fast Lithium
Adsorption: < 2 minutes
• Demonstrated Fast Sorbent
Regeneration (Lithium
Extraction): < 5 minutes
• Demonstrated High Lithium
Selectivity and Uptake: Up to 6
mg-lithium/g-sorbent
• Demonstrated Long Sorbent
Life Cycle by using gas instead
of acid for regeneration: > 500
cycles
 Overview
• ExSorbtion has acquired and is commercializing a technology developed by SRI International. This technology
portfolio includes patented sorbents that have demonstrated very high lithium selectivity, fast reaction time to
adsorb lithium from the brine and to remove lithium from the sorbent. The patented regeneration process uses
carbon dioxide gas instead of acids (used by all other DLE companies) to extract the adsorbed lithium from the
sorbents. By using gas instead of acid, its sorbents last 5-10X longer than competing manganese- and titanium-
based sorbents – which is important because cost of the sorbent is >30% of the overall cost of goods sold for the
DLE process, enabling potentially the lowest operating cost compared to other DLE process. Additionally, since
the process uses carbon dioxide gas for regeneration, the process basically acts as a carbon sink making it the
greenest DLE process, and we consume only 23 tons of water for each ton of lithium carbonate produced which
is >60% lower than competing DLE processes.
• Unlike mining and evaporation pond process which requires $500M-$2B in Capex, the Company estimates a
$75M capex investment to produce 20,000 tons/year of LCE (Lithium Carbonate Equivalent). The Company
estimates a fully-loaded cost of <$4,200/ton (including depreciation) for producing LCE (Lithium Carbonate
Equivalent). At a sales price of only $9,000/ton (which is ~6x lower than current sales price of LCE) – a 20,000
tons/year production facility could potentially generate a recurring $100M/year in gross profit and $80M/year in
free cash flow.
 ExSorbtion’s DLE Technology Process

Two Primary Differences compared to other DLE Processes

Our proprietary Sorbents last 10X longer We use Carbon Dioxide instead of Acid for regeneration
 ExSorbtion Technology Advantages
• The sorbents have shown high lithium selectivity, which means that even in brines that have low lithium content
and higher amounts of salts and other materials, the sorbents show high selectivity for lithium. We have
demonstrated cost effective lithium production from brines that have 40ppm lithium.
• The sorbents take only a few minutes of contact with the brine to extract most of the lithium in the brine and a
few minutes of contact with carbon dioxide gas to remove most of the lithium adsorbed by the sorbent. This
reaction time of <2 minutes for adsorption and <5 minutes for regeneration is >10x faster than similar DLE
processes.
• Carbon dioxide gas is used for the desorption/regeneration step, and thus the process acts as carbon sink to
reduce the carbon footprint of the facility (and is therefore much greener). All (or most of) the CO2 emissions
from a geothermal plant can be captured and used in our DLE process for regeneration.
• Since acid is not used the sorbents last much longer, which is a major cost saving since the cost of the sorbents is
one of the major consumables (20-40% of the operating expense) in the DLE process. The Company has tested
the sorbents for more than 500 cycles.
• Additionally, since the process does not use acid in the desorption/regeneration step to remove the lithium form
the sorbents; therefore, there is no acid storage and pumping requirement, and the process does not require
additional steps to clean the acid for reuse or to dispose of it.
• Without the use of hydrochloric acid, the product is lithium carbonate - a mid-range lithium product, versus other
DLE companies whose product is lithium chloride, the lowest valued lithium product.
• Additionally, our process consumes only an estimated 23 tons of water for each ton of lithium carbonate
produced which is >60% lower than competing DLE processes.
 DLE Triangle
• There is a reason why we see a lot of DLE lab and pilot scale units but
nothing in large scale production yet. For DLE to be an economically viable
solution, all three ingredients of the DLE triangle need to be present.
• A sorbent that lasts only 30 cycles which needs to be replaced over ~50
times every year, and at a cost of $10M each time (assumed: $20/kg sorbent
and 500 tons of sorbent for 20 tons/year LCE production). So, replacing it 50
times would cost $500M just in sorbent costs, which is fine if we want to sell
Lithium for $70,000/ton, however if we want to drive electrification, lithium
needs to sell at a price that is 5x lower. And for this to happen, the sorbents
need to last a lot longer (>500 cycles in our case), the adsorption and
regeneration time needs to be a lot faster (<5 minutes in our case) and the
sorbents need to have high selectivity and uptake (90% and up to to 6mg/g
in our case).
• Unlike mining and evaporation pond projects which requires $500M-$2B in
Capex, we estimate a $75M capex investment would allow us to produce
20,000 tons/year of LCE. We estimate a fully-loaded cost of ~$4,200/ton
(including depreciation) for producing LCE. At a sales price of only $9,000/ton
(which is >6x lower than current sales price of LCE) – a 20,000 tons/year
production facility could potentially generate $80M/year in free cash
flow/year, thus providing stellar unit economics as well.
 A new kind of Sorbent
• ExSorbtion’s technology is based on nanoparticles comprising a porous particle composite and a metal ion imprinted
polymer acting both as a carrier for the metal ion sieve particles and as sites for selective metal ion exchange. The metal
ion sieve provides for lithium-ion selectivity while the imprinted binder provides additional sites for lithium-ion adsorption
within an overall porous structure permitting fluid transport within and throughout the particle.
• The combination of the two systems in the ExSorbtion composition provides for both efficient lithium-ion uptake, i.e. high
lithium uptake and fast kinetics, and effective lithium-ion separation from competing ions. The combination is unique
compared to other sorbent-based DLE technologies which rely on only one active sorbent system, with the carrier, if any,
having only a passive role.
• For example:
– Lilac Solutions uses only a metal oxide sorbent. The sorbent particles are supported by a polymer matrix but the matrix does not have ion exchange
properties (US Patent 10,150,056 B2).

– Standard Lithium employs a hydrous metal oxide sorbent based on titanium oxide as the sorbent for its process. The sorbent particles are unsupported, with
the sorbent used in slurry form and the particles recovered by filtration (US 2019/0276327 A1).

– Eramet employs a solid alumina-based sorbent in its process, with the sorbent extruded as nodules without the use of any binder to provide cohesive strength
to the particles (US 2020/0316557 A1) or to provide supplemental lithium ion extraction or ion separation capacity.

– Similarly, the sorbent developed by Simbol Inc. for lithium extraction from geothermal brines was an aluminum chloride double layered hydroxide composition
held within a polymer matrix (US 2014/0239224 A1). This technology is also believed to be the basis for the DLE technology developed by International Battery
Metals Inc.

– Also, similarly, the recently announced aluminum chloride double layered hydroxide sorbent developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory appears to act in the
same unsupported manner as a sorbent developed by All American Lithium (US Patent 10,328,424 B2).
 High Lithium Uptake

Brine Composition

Test data on sorbent stability indicates the performance of the sorbent remains consistent over a significant
number of cycles
 High Lithium Selectivity

Brine Composition

*The lithium separation coefficients were calculated as follows:

αLi/Me = QLi/CLi * CMe/QMe
where QLi and QMe are the adsorption capacities of Li and a generic metal ion Me in the polymer (mg Li or Me/g sorbent), and while CLi and CMe are the
concentrations of Li and metal ion Me in the brine (mg Li or Me/L brine) tested.
The concentration of lithium ion and other metal ions were tested by ion exchange chromatography.
 Intellectual Property

App/Patent # Country TITLE Status

US10610858B2 United Metal Ion Extraction from Brines Granted
States
US11014085B2 United Concentrating Lithium Carbonate after Granted
States Regeneration of Lithium Sorbent
WO2018035463A1 WO/PCT Metal Ion Extraction from Brines Published
MX2019001913A Mexico Metal Ion Extraction from Brines Pending
CA3034079A1 Canada Metal Ion Extraction from Brines Pending
BR112019003192 Brazil Metal Ion Extraction from Brines Granted
B1
CN109715288B China Extraction of metal ions from brine Granted
EP3500362A4 Europe Metal Ion Extraction from Brines Pending
AU2017313149B2 AU Metal ion extraction from brines Granted
 Comparison of performance data for the ExSorbtion sorbent v/s sorbents
produced or used by other DLE companies

Company Sorbent Type Feed Solution Lithium Li Concentration Separation Factors Sorbent Durability
Type Uptake Factor (Li/M) (% mass retention)
Capacity (Li in brine/Li in Feed) (Liconc/Lifeed)/(Mconc/Mfeed)
(mgLi/g
sorbent) Mg K Ca SO4 Na

77
Mn-based metal Synthetic 71:1 to 323:1 to
ExSorbtion 5– 16.2* 10 X Very high to No data High
ion sieve geothermal brine 136:1 3855:1
211:1

Alumina-based Synthetic
ORNL No data 3.53 X No data. 212 143.6 No data 47.8 Not available
sorbent geothermal brine

Alumina-based
Eramet Synthetic brine 6-7 1.6 – 2.5 X 15:1 1000:1 10:1 500:1 1000:1 80% after 20 cycles
sorbent

Various Mn, Ti,

Data not
Lilac Al2O3 based various Typically 10 – 15 X No data No data No data No data No data 80%
available
sorbents

Titania-based Groundwater
Standard Lithium No data 10 X 262 No data 145 O data 41 80%
sorbent brine

Believed to be
Data not
E3 Metals alumina-based Produced water 11.66 X No data No data No data No data No data Not available
available
sorbent

* depends on type of brine and process conditions. Sourced from Company data and patent literature.
 Hard Rock v/s Evaporation Ponds v/s DLE
Estimates for producing
Hard Rock Evaporation Ponds DLE
20mt/yr of Li2CO3

Capex >2 billion >$500 million $100 million

Production Costs $2,500-5,000/ton $3,500-9,750/ton $3,000-6,000/ton

ROI > 10 years 7-10 years 1-2 years

IRR 8-12% 8-14% > 50%

Permitting time 2 years 3 years < 1 year

Footprint >5 sq.km >10 sq.km ~0.01 sq.km

Lithium Recovery Rate ~60% ~40% > 80%

Time to first Revenue 3-5 years 4-5 years ~1 year

Environmental Impact High Very High Low

 2018-22 2023 2024 2025 2026 +

• Finalized • Complete set-up • Deploy mobile • Begin set-up of • Begin set-up of

sorbent and of integrated skid unit a large 20,000 another 20,000
process DLE facility for • Complete plant tons/year tons/year plant
• Set-up several evaluation and design for lithium in 2026
lab-scale DLE testing 20,000 carbonate plant • Begin set-up of
units • Design and tons/year plant at one of the 25,000
• Completed begin • Acquire/JV selected lithium tons/year plant
testing of oilfield fabrication of properties/ brine property in 2027
geothermal 100 lpm mobile partners of • Execute royalty-
brines skid unit interest based
• Set-up pilot- • Secure partners technology • Execute
scale (10 lpm) for large scale licensing • Evaluate
extraction unit sorbent agreement with • Learn
using CEC production specific • Adapt
funding companies • Repeat
 20,000 TPA LCE Plant Economics for ExSorbtion
Total Production Cost
Li in Brine (ppm) CapEx ($M) OpEx/Ton ($) Depreciation Cost ($/Ton)
($/Ton)
200 $ 74.39 $ 3,903 $ 186 $ 4,089

400 $ 52.27 $ 3,843 $ 131 $ 3,974

600 $ 45.92 $ 3,827 $ 115 $ 3,942

* Estimates • Unlike mining and evaporation pond process which

requires $500M-$2B in Capex, the Company estimates
a $75M capex investment to produce 20,000 tons/year
of LCE (Lithium Carbonate Equivalent). The Company
estimates a fully-loaded cost of <$4,200/ton (including
depreciation) for producing LCE (Lithium Carbonate
Equivalent). At a sales price of only $9,000/ton (which is
~6x lower than current sales price of LCE) – a 20,000
tons/year production facility could potentially generate
a recurring $100M/year in gross profit and $80M/year
in free cash.
• Our estimates suggest that competing DLE
technologies would require 2-3x higher capex
investment at a fully-loaded cost of >$15,000/ton
(including depreciation) for producing LCE (Lithium
Carbonate Equivalent). ExSorbtion is potentially
cheaper than almost all sources, and much faster and
efficient.
 Business Model

Salars
Oil & Gas • High brine flow and high
• Partner with oilfield lithium content justify a
water treatment stand-alone selective
companies since single adsorption plant
wells do not produce • Purchase salar asset and
enough brines to self-operate or partner
justify a stand-alone with salar asset owner on
plant, whereas water a value-share basis
treatment facility get
brines from multiple
wells Geothermal and
• Direct Lithium Smackover
Extraction would be an • High brine flow and high
add-on to their existing lithium content justify a
water treatment stand-alone selective
infrastructure adsorption plant
• 50:50 value share • Partner with Geothermal
model company on a value-
share basis
 Team
Anupam Ghildyal
Douglas Heller
15+ years with early and
growth stage companies President and CEO of Sun
Specialty Products, a
20+ startups in materials,
company that produces
energy, manufacturing
and consumer sectors millions of pounds of
polymeric beads for a
15+ new products variety of applications.
commercialized
Partner in the
10+ Countries sales and Philadelphia-based
operating experience private equity investment
$500+ million in equity & firm of Heller Hickox &
debt financing Company, that invests in
oil and gas companies
Srinivas Bhamidi
Don Hains
Invented the DLE
Author of the ‘Best Practice
technology at SRI
Guidelines for Reporting of
Led the formulation and
development of DLE Lithium Brine Resources and
Reserves’
sorbents
Industrial minerals
Significant development
exploration and economic
experience in materials
geologist with more than 30
and battery technologies
years of experience in
3 United States patents, 3
development, use and
invention disclosures and
analysis of industrial
several publications.
minerals properties and
materials
01 Lithium is the default
choice for modern
batteries

Legacy Lithium Production

02 Processes are Slow,
Expensive and Toxic

We have a fundamentally
03 different DLE technology/
process

We have demonstrated a
04 green, fast & cost-
effective solution for
extracting Lithium