NOVONIX Limited ($NVX)

Okay. Good morning. If I could ask everyone to take a seat, we'll get started. Okay. Welcome. Good morning. I'm Ron Edmonds, Chairman of NOVONIX. I'd like to welcome our shareholders and guests to NOVONIX' 2026 Annual General Meeting. We acknowledge the Jagera people and the Turrbal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. We pay our respects to Jagera and Turrbal Elders, past, present and emerging. Today, we're very pleased to welcome those of you at the meeting in person and those who are attending online through our virtual meeting platform provided by our share registrar, MUFG Corporate Markets Limited. I'll introduce the directors who are with us today; Michael O'Kronley, Tony Bellas, Bob Natter and Sharan Burrow. And also introduce the directors who have joined us virtually, which is Suresh Vaidyanathan and Jean Oelwang and Nick Liveris. And I'd also like to introduce Robert Long, our CFO; and Suzanne Yeates, our Corporate Secretary. Joining us virtually today from our management team is Ms. Kimberly Heimert, our Chief Legal and Risk Officer; and Mr. Dwayne Johnson, our Chief Operating Officer. We also have with us today, Mr. Michael Crowe, representing NOVONIX' auditors, PwC. Mr. Crowe is available to answer questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent external auditors report. And Ms. Chelsey Drake of Allens, our legal advisers. So it's at past 9 a.m., and a quorum is present. I declare the meeting open. Notice of the meeting was duly given and the meeting has been properly convened. Please note that only shareholders, proxy holders or shareholder company representatives may vote and ask questions. The minutes of the previous general meeting of shareholders held on September 8, 2025 have been approved by directors and signed by the Chairman as a true and correct record. Members may request a copy of the minutes if they wish to see them. I will provide my perspective on the company's progress over the past year, which has been an important period of operational progress as well as opportunities and challenges facing NOVONIX and the sector more broadly. Globally, calendar '25 was marked by geopolitical instability and risk-off positioning by investors. Electrification of transportation and the greater need for battery energy storage systems reemerged as major energy security issues as well as key climate response mechanisms. This has been amplified by the more recent turmoil in the Middle East, exposing global vulnerability to supply chain disruptions for oil and gas. It's also emphasized the need among nation states to achieve greater self-sufficiency and production of critical minerals, such as synthetic graphite, which is vital for EV-grade batteries and battery energy storage systems as well as reduced reliance on energy from oil and gas. For our company, 2025 marked the achievement of a key milestone with the delivery of its first mass production commercial-grade sample of synthetic graphite for industrial applications. This demonstrates that the company's proprietary continuous graphitization furnace technology, that's a mouthful, is capable of producing material at scale and represents an important step towards broader commercialization. At our Riverside facility in Chattanooga, we completed the insulation and commissioning of the mass production equipment required to support qualification of our lead customer, Panasonic Energy. With 4 graphitization furnaces installed, the company's progressed furnace calibration and raw material testing as part of his transition toward large-scale production. We've continued to engage closely with customers and potential customers across battery, energy storage and industrial applications, providing samples for qualification and progressing discussions with a range of counterparties. The company has indicated that mass production of industrial-grade synthetic graphite is expected to commence in 2026, reflecting the shorter qualification pathway for these materials. At the same time, we updated the market on the expected timing for commencement of mass production of battery-grade anode material for Panasonic Energy, which is now anticipated in the second half of 2027, reflecting the rigorous qualification processes required for anode grade synthetic graphite for EVs and battery energy storage systems. In July, NOVONIX strengthened its financial position through the execution of a funding agreement with Yorkville Advisors that provided access to $100 million in convertible debentures through multiple tranches drawn during the second half of 2025. During the year, the company completed the sale of its Mount Dromedary Natural Graphite Project and more recently, also entered into a binding term sheet for the proposed divestment of its NOVONIX Battery Technology Solutions business. These 2 actions show a sharpened focus by NOVONIX on its core strategy of developing and scaling synthetic graphite production in the United States. This focus will continue to enable the company to concentrate its resources on a single high-priority opportunity aligned with evolving supply chain and policy dynamics. The proposed BTS transaction remains subject to final documentation and customer conditions precedent. At the corporate level, we strengthened our leadership team with the appointment of Michael O'Kronley as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director; Kimberly Heimert as Chief Legal and Risk Officer; and Dwayne Johnson as Chief Operating Officer, supporting the next phase of operational execution. While the company has made solid progress, we continue to operate in a complex and evolving environment. The qualification of battery-grade materials, the scaling of advanced manufacturing processes and broader market dynamics remain key areas of focus. Notwithstanding these challenges, NOVONIX remains well positioned with advanced technology, strategic customer engagement and a clear focus on establishing the United States domestic supply of anode-grade synthetic graphite. Also, I would like to thank Nick Liveris, who has taken the decision to retire from our Board effective at the conclusion of this AGM to focus on his other commitments. Nick was previously the company's Chief Financial Officer and its first full-time employee, transitioning to an executive director role in 2024. We thank Nick for his significant contributions to the company and wish him well and the best in all future endeavors. The Board remains sharply focused on its disciplined execution of the company's strategy and on delivering on term value to shareholders. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to providing further updates on our progress. Thank you, and I will now turn to the business of the meeting. I will now outline the procedural matters of this meeting, so procedures for asking questions. All shareholders will have the opportunity to comment on and ask questions in relation to the resolutions. I will hold comments and questions until the item of business has been introduced, and shareholders have been invited to then do so. Shareholders will be able to ask questions in person and online during the meeting. For those participating online, we have published on our website the Meeting Online Guide, which explains how to attend and participate in the AGM virtually. I confirm you can start submitting questions via the online platform now. You do not need to wait until we get to the relevant item of business. We encourage you to start submitting questions now. In order to ensure that all shareholders have a reasonable opportunity to comment and ask questions, I request that shareholders do not ask more than 2 questions at a time. I will endeavor to answer all relevant questions from the shareholders during today's meeting. However, I reserve the right as Chair to rule questions as not pertaining to the AGM out of order and to take questions on notice. I propose that the order of taking questions will be as follows: firstly, from any shareholders in the room with us today; secondly, from any shareholders online who have asked an audio question, and thirdly, from any shareholders who have asked a question via online text. Now on to voting. I'd like to briefly summarize the voting procedures, which will apply to the meeting. Each resolution will be conducted by a poll. As shareholders are aware, no formal vote is required on Item 1 of the agenda. A poll will be conducted on Resolutions 1 to 13. All members and appointed proxies attending the meeting in person and are entitled to vote were given a voting card upon admission to the building. If you have a green voting card, you are a voting shareholder, proxy holder or corporate representative and have chosen to vote using a paper voting card. You are also entitled to speak at the meeting. If you have a yellow card, you are a nonvoting shareholder. While you're entitled to ask questions and make comments, you are not entitled to vote at this meeting. If you have a white card, you are a visitor and not entitled to speak or vote at this meeting. For shareholders participating virtually in this meeting, click on the Get a Voting Card or Ask a Question box at the top or bottom of the web page in order to obtain a voting card or to log a question. The share registry has sent the relevant proxy numbers to policyholders -- sorry, to proxy holders validly appointed by shareholders prior to the meeting. For appointed proxies participating virtually in this meeting, please click on Get a Voting Card or Ask a Question box at the top or bottom of the web page. Key in your proxy number under proxy details in the pop-up box on your screen in order to obtain a voting card or to log a question. If you have misplaced your proxy number or have not received your proxy number, please bring the help line number displayed at the top of your screen presidents. You may submit your votes via the online platform at any time during the meeting shareholders and appointed proxies will be able to submit their votes on Resolutions 1 to 13 via the online portal any time from now until all these resolutions have been put to the meeting and discussed. Where undirected proxies have been given in favor of the Chairman, I will vote in favor of the resolution to the extent permitted. The number of proxy votes received on each resolution will be displayed in the side view section of your web browser as we move through the resolutions. Your votes will be counted by personnel from our share register, MUFG Corporate Markets Limited. The results of each poll will be announced via the ASX as soon as possible after this meeting and will also be displayed on our website. If you experience any difficulties using the online platform, the helpline number is displayed at the top of the page. You can also refer to the Online Meeting Guide, which is accessible via the online platform. We will now move to the formal items of business for the meeting. The first item of business in the Notice of Meeting is to consider the financial statements and the reports of the directors and auditors for the financial year ended 31 December 2025. A table for discussion in the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2025 setting out these reports, which has been made available to all shareholders on the ASX. There is no voting on this item of business. This item gives security holders the opportunity to ask questions about the company and its operational performance. The company's auditor, Mr. Michael Crowe from PwC, is present and available to answer any questions in respect to the Audit Report. We will start with questions from shareholders attending in person. Are there any questions in respect to the annual report? Okay. Are there any audio questions with respect to the annual report?

Chair, we have no questions at this time.

Okay. Thank you. I will now take questions from shareholders watching online who have sent in their questions via online text.

There are no questions online.

Okay. Thank you, Suzanne. Okay. Moving on. Resolution 1 concerns the approval of the remuneration report for year ended 31 December 2025. It is a nonbinding resolution to adopt the remuneration report. Please note that the vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company. However, the Board and the company will take into account any feedback that we receive in developing our future remuneration framework. Voting exclusions apply to this resolution as set out in the Notice of Meeting. Are there any questions in respect to Resolution 1 from holders in attendance at the AGM here today? Are there any audio questions from the online participants on Resolution 1?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Okay. Thank you. I'll now take questions from shareholders watching online who have sent their questions online?

There are no questions received online.

Okay. Thank you, Suzanne. Okay. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. I would like to remind shareholders who haven't yet cast their votes on this resolution to do so now. [Voting]

We'll move on to the next item of business. Resolution 2 concerns the reelection of Admiral Robert Natter. With the exception of Admiral Robert Natter, who is abstaining from this resolution, the election of Robert Natter has unanimous support of the NOVONIX Board and the Board recommends that you vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions in respect to Resolution 2 from shareholders in attendance here today? Are there any audio questions from online participants on Resolution 2?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Thank you. I'll take questions from shareholders watching online who sent in their questions online text?

No questions online.

Okay. Thank you, Suzie. Okay. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. I'd like to remind shareholders who haven't yet cast their votes on this resolution to do so now. [Voting]

We'll move on to the next item of business. Okay. Resolution 3 concerns the election of Ron Edmonds. With the exception of Ron Edmonds, myself, who has abstained from this resolution, the election of Ron Edmonds has the unanimous support of the NOVONIX Board, and the Board recommends that you vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions in respect to Resolution 3 from holders in attendance today? Are there any questions from online participants on this resolution?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions from the online people that have sent in text questions, Suzie?

No questions online.

Thank you. Okay. Proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. Like for my shareholders who haven't yet cast their votes on this resolution to do so now. [Voting]

And we'll move on to the next item of business. Resolution 4 concerns the performance rights plans. The approval of the performance rights plan has the unanimous support of the NOVONIX Board, and the Board recommends that you vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions in respect of Resolution 4 holders in attendance at the AGM today? Are there any audio questions from online participants?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders watching online who present in their questions via text?

Yes, I have a couple of questions online. The first one is, there was a 20% proxy protest vote against the remuneration report. What was the issue? Were there concerns about the structure of the performance rights plan?

I'm sorry, could you repeat it one more time, Suzie? I'm sorry.

There was a 20% proxy protest vote against the remuneration report. What was the issue? Were there concerns about the structure of the performance rights plan?

I don't think there are any -- there are no reasons given.

Yes. I don't believe we saw any reasons given. So we can't really express why they would both the way they did or recommend their vote. Any other questions, Suzie?

Panasonic mass production delayed to 2H 2027, third delay. Will performance rights be forfeited if delayed again?

Well, I think the performance -- I believe the performance rights -- the requirements that have to be met for performance rights to be given will be here to regardless of -- I mean, if that's one of the metrics, and we will adhere to that. Okay. Any other questions, Suzie?

That's all.

Okay. Thank you. So the proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. I'd like to remind shareholders we haven't yet cast their votes on this resolution to do so now, and we'll move on to the next item of business. [Voting]

Resolution 5 concerns the issuance of fiscal year 2016 performance rights to Michael O'Kronley, the directors other than the director who have a special interest in the resolution, recommend that you vote in favor of this resolution. Voting exclusions applied to this resolution as set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions in respect to Resolution 5 from holders in attendance at the AGM today? Okay. Are there any audio questions from any of the online participants?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Thank you. Any questions from shareholders watching online?

No questions online.

Okay. Thank you, Suzie. Okay. The proxy votes received in relation to this resolution are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. I'd like to remind shareholders who haven't yet cast their votes on this resolution to do so now. We'll move on to the next item of business. [Voting]

Resolution 6 to 12, considering the issuance -- the issue of fiscal year '26 share rights to Phillips 66 Company; Mr. Nick Liveris, Mr. Tony Bellas, Ms. Sharan Burrow, Mr. Ron Edmonds, Admiral Robert Natter and Ms. Jean Oelwang. The directors, other than the directors have a special interest in this resolution, recommend that you vote in favor of these resolutions. Voting exclusions apply to each resolutions as set in the Notice of Meeting. Are there any questions in respect Resolution 6 to 12 from holders in attendance here at the AGM today? Okay. Are there any audio questions?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any questions from shareholders watching online who have sent in their questions?

Yes, we've got one question and it regards Nick Liveris' share rights. Why did we propose its share rights, share right grant to Nick Liveris given his decision to resign from the company and finish up today?

Yes. So Mr. Liveris' share rights will be prorated based on his service for the Board, so he will get through to today. So thank you. Any other questions, Suzie? Okay. So the proxy votes received in relation to these resolutions are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. I'd like to remind shareholders who haven't yet cast their votes on these resolutions to do so now. [Voting]

So moving on to Resolution 13, concerns the additional 10% placement capacity under Listing Rule 7.1A. The directors recommend that you vote in favor of this resolution. Voting exclusions apply to each resolution as set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions in respect to Resolution 13 from holders here in attendance today. Okay. Any audio questions for participants on this resolution?

Chair, there are no audio questions at this time.

Thank you. Any questions from shareholders watching online?

I have some online questions. Cash runway? Will you issue more dilutive convertibles?

Maybe I'll ask -- maybe, Robert, do you want to talk to that?

Thank you for your question. As we assess the capital needs of the business and the ultimate capital structure, that would be a consideration, but there's no guarantee to which form of capital instrument we would issue.

Thank you, Robert.

Another question. How much will this dilute the current shareholders and share price? Also, when do you foresee the share price recovery to reasonable levels?

I'm sorry, can you repeat the first part of it, Suzie?

How much will this dilute the current shareholders and share price?

Well, sorry, but you say how much will this dilute? What is this?

The 10% placement capacity.

Robert, do you want to handle that?

The resolution only approves a placement capacity is not the issuance of shares. So it allows the company certain flexibility from a capital raise perspective, but there is no dilution with the approval of this resolution.

Yes. And regarding the expectation on the share price, that's extremely difficult to comment on that. I think I can speak for the Board, we all feel the pain that our shareholders have felt in this regard. And I can assure you that the management team and the Board are working diligently to address the issues that need to be taken care of to take us to the next level.

There's another question and it notes that there's substantial protest votes against resolutions like this at recent AGMs. They're asking, what is our history of doing selective placements? Why are we asking for this authority? And has there been a substantial protest vote against this resolution?

I don't think we've had a substantial vote against it, so I think that's a fair statement. But I think it's about maintaining our financial flexibility. But Robert, please feel free to add anything.

No, I agree with you, Ron. The reason for the additional capacity is for flexibility as we pursue capital structure alternatives. And so it's just to provide the business more flexibility as we look to finance the business going forward.

Any more questions? That's it? Okay. Good. Thank you. Okay. The proxy votes received in relation to these resolutions are now shown on the presentation slides on your screen. I'd like to remind shareholders who haven't yet cast their votes on these resolutions to do so now. [Voting]

So this concludes the formal prove meeting. And I'd like to now hand it over to Michael O'Kronley for the CEO presentation. Mike?

Great. Thanks, Ron. Just by way of introduction, I'm Michael O'Kronley, I'm the CEO of NOVONIX. I've been with the company just about over 10 months now. Relatively new to the company, but not new to the battery industry to the battery materials industry and certainly not high-volume manufacturing. I spent the majority of my career launching new products, new plants, new divisions, and that's bringing that expertise to NOVONIX and then also strengthening the team around me to launch and go into production, high-volume production of synthetic graphite. So that's some of the background. What I wanted to do here is talk a little bit about where NOVONIX is at, to remind a lot of investors what we actually are. The last couple of days, we've been traveling around Australia talking to investors, institutional investors, and it still surprises me a little bit. There's confusion in the market, in the investor market of who we actually are. So the first slide is to talk a little bit about who we are and what we're doing. We are a synthetic graphite manufacturer. As it comes to a surprise to some investors, we are not a mining company. We are an industrial company. We are converting a byproduct for petroleum refining, petroleum coke, into an engineered material that is used in lithium-ion batteries or it's used largely in lithium-ion batteries. So we're also -- synthetic graphite is a critical mineral. Critical minerals are very important. I'll get into this in just a moment of the geopolitical impact of this particular material that we are making. There's a significant problem in the market with this particular material and NOVONIX is solving this particular problem with our innovative technology and our launch into production. So talking a little bit about that in the future. We are very much a U.S.-based company. And so our employees, our assets, our technology is all U.S. based. Our supply chain is U.S.-based. Our customers are U.S.-based. And so thinking about that is essentially a nice framework of where we're going. So when we talk about the support and the support level that the company is getting really from the U.S. government, it's very important that we're based in the U.S. and that we're also supplying and solving a problem in the U.S. So I'll start talking a little bit about the battery market, but more specifically about graphite. So not all graphites are the same. There are 2 primary sources of graphite. One is the one that you mine out of the ground, thus some of the natural confusion that comes with certain investors. When they think graphite, a lot of people think about graphite that is mined. That's not what we do. That was the basis of the company many years ago where we had some mining rights to mine natural graphite. That was some rights that we just recently sold off. But we are focused on a graphite, it's this conversion to this engineered material. And the reason why we're focused on synthetic graphite rather than natural is because it is the majority of the market. So as you can see on this graph that's over on the right-hand side, this year, it's scheduled to be about 83% of the market. So natural is actually very small. It's a material that we can make, and it's even more important when we think about certain applications. The application that really needs synthetic graphite is energy storage. So when you think about or you read about data centers, energy storage, batteries renewables. These are batteries that require 100% synthetic graphite. It's not so much of an EV story of where you need to have a blend of natural and synthetic graphite. So that's why you see more and more growth that's happening on the synthetic side than on the natural. So when we look at the positioning, the product that NOVONIX is making, it's really in support of the growth that we're forecasting. And it's not just NOVONIX. It's really is our market forecast of how much this is going to grow. One of the things that -- while we're on this slide, if you look at 2032, the size of the market that's forecasted in North America is going to be around 500 kilotonnes. When NOVONIX is talking about how we're going to grow and how we're going to expand it, it's really about a number of 50 kilotonnes. So by 2032, when we're scheduled to have the full build-out of our facilities in Tennessee, that will represent approximately 10% of the market, our market share. We also feel that's a pretty good position to be in. You don't want to be the oversupplying and over dominant in a particular market, and that will also provide a little bit of scarcity. The fundamental problem that NOVONIX is solving here is a super highly concentrated supply chain. And with this particular material, it is largely supplied out of China. So 99% of this material is either produced in China or produced by Chinese controlled companies. And that's a problem. That's a problem for battery manufacturers. That's a problem for governments that are worried about the criticality of these particular materials, can we get this material? This particular material is also subject to export controls that the Chinese government already has in place. And a lot of you that are following our stock and our stock performance, you can see the impact it has. So the last October when the NOVONIX stock price had jumped. It was because of the export controls that China put in place, they put in additional export controls. So all of a sudden, battery manufacturers would have been limited at their ability to get this material out of China. And again, 99% of it comes from China or Chinese controlled companies. So that presents a huge problem for the industry. And so we're very sensitive to that. And so we're fundamentally solving this problem by manufacturing this product in North America for the North American market to help manufacturers certain or to navigate around the supply pinch. So it's a huge issue. And it's also the major reason why we have -- NOVONIX has received approximately just under $1 billion worth of support from a loan, from a grant and more recently, a tax credit that was recently certified just last week. And so an enormous amount of support from the U.S. government is going into this supply chain and is to solve this problem of just a hyper concentration of supply coming out of China. There is also another incentive for a battery manufacturer in North America to source NOVONIX and to source non-Chinese graphite, and it has to do with the tax credit regime that is in place already on the books in North America. And it's called a 45x Production Tax Credit. This tax credit is massive. And just to give you a scale here, on the upper right-hand side of this particular chart shows that a tax credit is around $35 per kilowatt hour for a battery cell manufacturer. The price of a typical battery cell is around $74 a kilowatt hour. So almost half of the price, the selling price of that battery can be claimed back in a tax credit. That's just massive. You have to do 2 things in order to get this tax credit, however. You have to, one, manufacture batteries in the United States. And number two, you have to put materials into that battery that are something called PFE free, a prohibited foreign entity, and it can't be from a prohibited foreign entity and think China. China is one of those entities that are or any Chinese-controlled company is a PFE. And so as a result, battery manufacturers are going to be forced to source other non-PFE materials in their battery to claim this massive tax credit. And in the lower right-hand side of this chart, you can see that between 2028 and 2029, it's going to be virtually impossible to receive this tax credit if you don't have graphite sourced. So the value of a graphite in a typical battery is around 20%, 22%. And in that time frame, you need to have non-PFE materials going in there that are between 70% and 80%. So by 2029, really, you're going to need PFE-free materials going into this battery to get this massive tax credit. So this is really driving a lot of sourcing decisions at battery manufacturers to look for alternatives that are non-Chinese graphite. So talking a little bit about what NOVONIX has been doing. Of course, over the last 10 years, this type of thing doesn't happen overnight. A lot of you that have been invested in the company for the long term have seen this. You've seen the development. What we're doing is something that is new and different and unique. We're making this material at a -- with an environmentally friendly process. This is a lot of new intellectual property that has been developed, and we're commercializing that now. So it's not something that you can just turn on. It needs a lot of development time. And so we appreciate the patience of the investors. We appreciate the patience with even our customers of developing this new process is new technology. And I'll get into a comparison and also a variable cost comparison in just another slide. But that's -- it takes a lot of time to develop a new technology when you're going to disrupt the market. We've also, in the past year, we've focused the business, we focused it as Ron had mentioned, around synthetic graphite. So some of the noncore assets that we've recently divested whether it's the Mount Dromedary rights sale or more recently, the Battery Technology Solutions Group where they're doing very good work. However, it's not core to synthetic graphite. So we wanted to focus what it is we're doing, focus from a management time perspective, from an investment and capital perspective to grow and solve the problem that exists in the United States. And also, it's where we're getting the majority of our support from the U.S. government is on synthetic graphite manufacturing. We published some pictures from time to time in our quarterly reports. This is some recent pictures of the equipment that has been going into our Riverside facility. We have all of the equipment in place for this facility right now. And it is enough equipment to go into production with Panasonic. And so there are going to be our lead customer next year and all of that equipment, all of that CapEx is already in place. This is just a quick comparison, but on a lot of different compare metrics. The process and the new technology that NOVONIX is putting in is less expensive than the alternative process that is being used widely in China, which is the Acheson process. So once we get to scale, we will be at a lower dollar per kilowatt hour or dollar per kilogram basis than the state-of-the-art technology that's utilized in China. A lot has been -- a lot of questions have come up recently. And hopefully, this slide will address it. It's a very busy slide, but what it's trying to do is it's trying to describe the qualification process of what it takes in order to qualify this material for a battery application. And when you add up all of the time on this chart from initial engagement to start of production, the time frame is certainly measured in years. It's not measured in quarters. anywhere from 2.5 to 5 years it takes to develop a product, to co-develop a product with a battery manufacturer and get it into production. Some of these customers are very advanced, which they've already gone to contract, which are Panasonic and then PowerCo. But behind that, we have a fairly large pipeline of product -- I'm sorry, a fairly large pipeline of new customers, new applications that are behind it that we're not public with yet but they're right behind these announced contracts. So looking forward, do I anticipate being able to announce new customers, new customer contracts in the next 6 to 12 months? Absolutely. This chart on the right-hand side gives you just a little bit of context of the volumes we're talking about. So the 2 initial contracts that we have with Panasonic and PowerCo are represented in the green line around 10, 11 kilotonnes of total need, total capacity. We are in discussions with a lot more customers more than just those 2 initial customers. That essentially is 3x what our planned capacity is. And so we have a very large pipeline in there. Of course, we're not going to land all of those contracts, but we certainly have line of sight to filling the plant by 2030, 2032. And so just looking forward a little bit, 2 final slides here. A little bit of confusion and trying to put a little context around why is NOVONIX looking at expanding when we haven't even started production on our first -- with our first customer yet. There's quite a few reasons for this. So those of you that have been following all of the announcements, we have 2 sites planned. One is the initial site, our Riverside site. The second site was an Enterprise South site, which was a separate geographical location. Recently, we've had the opportunity to acquire land that is right adjacent to us. The reason why this is attractive is it's going to have certainly a lot of synergies with operational effectiveness as well as the significant capital savings. There's already a building on site. The land is already leveled and flat and ready to build. It already has a building on the site. It already has a lot of significant electrical infrastructure. So there'll be a massive amount of capital savings associated with this. The other reason that we need to be planning here is really it's with how we're receiving government funding. On the first site, we have received a grant and a tax credit. On the second site we received a loan. When we combine these 2 sites together into 1 project, what that effectively allows us to do is to bring in all of those funding sources onto 1 project and it also would allow us potentially to bring forward some of the loan financing that we get from the U.S. government. So really, it's to give us a little bit more flexibility in how we're going to finance the growth here. So that's important. But also when we're out talking to customers, and we're looking at volumes, and you saw those lines of the projected volumes with the 2 customers or the potential customers that we're looking at. Some customer applications are looking at 20, 25 kilotonnes per which is already the volume larger than our initial facility, which was only at 20. So we need something and we need to have a plan and to be able to show that we have a growth plan and a capacity that we can build upon. So this is the reason behind making this investigation. It's not a complete investigation. There's still some things we need to complete before we finally pull the trigger on it, but that will be happening later this summer. And then finally, this is just a summary of where we're at. We are continuing every day to scale our operations. We are running that equipment that you saw in those pictures. We are making samples virtually every week in sending a samples to new customers. And this is a weekly activity that's happening. We are looking at lots of different financing options. Certainly, I touched on the financing through the U.S. government. That is they're a very helpful source of financing, but we also need to bring a certain amount of matching capital along with that. And so as we talked about with the last resolution, to give the company a certain amount of flexibility and what are the different structures, what makes sense is there some strategic financing that would also come in. So this is something that we're very engaged with, bringing along some additional financing. And of course, the at the very bottom here, customers. We're going to be increasing our customer order book we are very engaged with a lot of customers, sending out samples like I said, every week or every other week, new applications, new projects here. And like I said, we'll be bringing that to the market and announcing that in the near future. So I think with that, we can take some questions.

Yes. You mentioned in one of your earlier slides, you're the world's most advanced synthetic graphite producer. How much do you produce as samples to various clients? Is it kilograms? Is it 1,000 kilograms?

Yes. So just to clarify, we are North America's most advanced synthetic graphite producer. So not the world. There are certainly Chinese companies. Most of this material comes from China. And so as far as North America, with the plant that we already have built, the capacity that we already have built, we're at about 1.4 kilotonnes of capacity that we can make today. What we are doing today is continuing to make sample materials out to various customers, including Panasonic, but also PowerCo and that whole customer pipeline. And so those pictures that I showed, we are making the material today. It is measured not just in kilograms, it's measured in tons. On a particular run and a particular week, we will go through and make tons of material in a particular week. We're still going through the final qualification and delivering of some of those samples. We'll have some announcements soon about that when that's getting delivered. Last fall, we talked about different applications, not just battery customers but also industrial customers. So we're, again, making some samples for that. So we have a pilot scale facility as well as a larger scale facility, the mass production equipment that you saw. So we're utilizing all of those assets to deliver materials to different customers for different applications.

And if I could please ask my second question. No doubt, the notice from NASDAQ regarding the $1 limit is cause for concern for us. What's the Board's intention regarding that? Will there be a consolidation?

Yes. So yes, I can answer that or Robert, if you want to go ahead and answer that one.

Sure. Thank you for the question. So a broad consolidation is an option to cure the NASDAQ matter as well as just organic growth in the price. But there's also another option where one can increase the ratio of ADRs to ASX shares. Instead of 4:1, say, 5:1 or 6:1. So we're exploring those options, but most likely not a share consolidation.

That expires in? Is it 3 months or 2 months?

It's about the end of August. There's a 180-day period. So yes.

Could I ask what your view on risks to the business are, competition, settling with China and suddenly, they're more allowed into the market with a different president? What do you see as the risk profile for what's going on?

Yes. So I see lots of different risks for the business. Certainly, scaling is one thing, but that's something that we can control, right? And I think, and I'm very confident that we've put the right team in place to scale. And so individuals as well as teams that are scaling the business, scaling the operations. They've done this time and time again. So I'm confident in that because that is something that we can control. When it comes to other risks in the business, I look at the geopolitical risks. Certainly, China is dominant with this material in this particular market. And barring anything else that China is going to continue to be dominant until NOVONIX is able to get to scale, to get to a price point of where we're able to compete with the Chinese. Long term, we will get there. In the short term, we need to get started. And that's where at least the U.S. government has been very consistent in what they've been doing through actions, through funding, through policy to provide an environment that is going to allow a supply chain to diversify away from China. So right now, and I even look back over several different administrations in the U.S. It's really -- the problem with critical minerals has been known for decades. It started really with some action and change during the first Trump administration. And then when the Biden administration came in, they continued the policies and even strengthened them. And now when we see in the second Trump administration, we see even an acceleration of urgency and putting policies to be very supportive of a North American supply chain of critical minerals. So that is certainly going very well in our direction in our favor. We don't necessarily need or reliant upon new tariffs and/or policies. We can look at the policies that are already in place. And this ex credit that I mentioned for battery manufacturers in North America. This production tax credit. That was put in place in the Biden era. Now when Trump came in with his administration, that was strengthened and actually lengthened. So I look at that and those are all signals and all signs saying that regardless of political party, regardless of who's in the White House, this is essentially a national priority for the United States that they want to solve this critical mineral problem. And we've already seen direct evidence where the underneath the Biden administration, NOVONIX was granted a significant amount of support with loans, grants and tax credits that has continued on now in the Trump administration. So everything there is telling me that, that is a very consistent, very consistent level of support. Other questions?

I mean obviously, the share price is a reflection of confidence and pseudo performance. I mean, the shareholders, I think you can feel that we are have question on performance. We don't see it in our bank balance. The deferral of the Panasonic supply reflects in the price because that deferral had suspicion that we're not where we need to be. So can you clarify that? We don't see a grade of quality of specification coming out of the publications? How are you going to be able to get confidence back from this point because we want to see some changes soon?

Yes. No, I fully appreciate that. And also, I think virtually everyone on the board as well as the management team also want to see the exact same thing. So we're in a position to make this happen and to change it. So there's been a lot of activity that's happened of recent. And let me just go back to what Panasonic is needing and requiring so really to fully understand that. The final step qualification process isn't to make the material that's to specification and works in a battery. That has already been done, that has already been proven. What Panasonic ultimately needs now is they need to see that same material that we've already made we've already demonstrated that we can make, they need to see it on the final large mass production equipment that's already installed. So the first step needed to be, you have to have the equipment, you have to have it installed and you have to have it running. Then you have to go through a process now of producing that same material, that same quality level on that mass production furnace. So what had happened back in January when we announced this pushback or the delay, when this new first-of-a-kind furnace was installed, and this was a much larger furnace than all of the previous versions of the furnace that we had installed. It wasn't operating quite as we had expected. There is a certain amount of the material through the furnace, flowing through the furnace. It didn't work again, as expected. So it required some modifications to this first-of-a-kind furnace. That is measured in a delay we needed to order some different parts, some different modifications, and we expect that to be happening very soon. Those parts are coming in, and we're now running the furnace and making sure that it is working according to the schedule. Panasonic has been very close with the entire process. They come on site. We speak with them at least every other week on the progress of what's happening. And I can assure you, there's a lot of urgency with the entire team at NOVONIX as well as with the Board that we're very focused on getting this deliverable done and complete. Panasonic is also eager to see this material. They've been very patient with. They do understand that this is new and new technology that is far more efficient and environmentally friendly. But sometimes new innovation and technology takes a little bit of time. So I do believe that we're getting very close. And so in the future, in the next time period here, I think you'll start to see some announcements of when this material was shipped out. Now I will comment once we make this final mass production sample to Panasonic, it will take Panasonic up to a year to go through their full validation. So again, it's going to take some time. So when we announced back in January that it was we were expecting to go into mass production at the back end of 2027, okay? That was reflected in the confidence and also on the share price and it did drop. I think that's the inflection point that a lot of investors are really focused on when are you getting -- when are we going to move forward into starting to generate revenue and starting to generate some profits. That's really what's needed and required. But the first step before that, and I think the step that we really need to key on is this next step of delivering this final mass production qualification sample. So Panasonic is very -- understands the product. We know what the product is. We know what the product needs to look like. So it's just a matter of manufacturing that out of this high-volume furnace. Now we have been doing a lot of work and a lot of testing. And so the team is confident that we will get there in short but it's still going to take some time and we need to deliver this. So I do think the real value inflection point will come when we delivered the sample, but then also when we go into production and we start generating revenue off of all this equipment and all this investment that we put in. continue.

It's a big and new one, is that right?

Yes. So right now, the one that Panasonic -- yes. So the question was, this isn't the first continuous low graphitization furnace that NOVONIX is installed, and that's correct. But it is the large production scale furnace. So we do have 3 other furnaces that are installed and operating. They're at a smaller scale. They are continuous flow. They are induction and they do produce the Panasonic material. So we have confidence that the process is going to work. We have confidence that this furnace technology is going to work. Panasonic's requirement, however, is to have it on this large-scale furnace. It's about 1.6, 1.7x the size of our previous furnaces. So it has scaled up to be more efficient. And that's the furnace that Panasonic wants to have that final sample from. So that was just recently completed installation at the end of last year and was running at the beginning of this year, but that's also when we recognized that it wasn't working quite as intended. So a few modifications need to be made, and that's what has to deliver that final Panasonic qualification sample. Other questions from the floor?

Where does the equipment, the main furnaces, where are they made?

So the main furnaces, all of the technology in the furnace, I think we've talked about is from Harper International, and that is designed and made in the United States, the Harper International centered in Buffalo, New York. So there's no Chinese technology that's involved at all on or technology that's subject to Chinese export controls. So we're completely independent of that.

Okay. And is the current oil price or situation affecting is a product or a byproduct of oil, a composition of this synthetic graphite?

So yes, so we use as a feedstock in our overall process, a byproduct of petroleum refining. So the cost of our input material does fluctuate with the price of oil. So the input material does go up. However, the 2 previous contracts or the contracts we have in place today with Panasonic and PowerCo do provide for a direct 100% pass-through for any variability in that feedstock cost. So as the oil price goes up, we pass through that adder directly to the customer.

Just something about power cost in the production, this induction thing, is that electricity cost? How is that flowing through? Is that something we here is pretty stable in the U.S.? Or is it fluctuating?

So energy cost, electricity are one of the significant drivers in our cost of goods. One of the beautiful things about being located in Chattanooga, Tennessee is it's in an area that is serviced by the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA is the local utility there that generates their electricity primarily from hydro and nuclear. Because of that, it's clean, but also from a perspective but it's also they're very efficient once the capital is in place. The U.S. federal government put these assets in place a long time ago. They invested in that. And as a result, if you were to map out the power cost everywhere across the United States, TVA has the lowest utility, the lowest electrical costs anywhere in the United States. So when you think of electricity being one of our significant cost drivers, we couldn't be in a better spot geographically because of the utility costs. I think next, we move on to online questions.

Currently, no online questions at this time.

All right. Thank you. Any written online questions?

I do have a couple of online questions. The first one is regarding the DOE loan. The $750 million DOE loan has been in conditional status for a long time. What is the final hurdle preventing the official closing and funding?

Yes. Robert, do you want to go ahead?

Yes. Sure. The conditional commitment loan has various conditions precedent, CPs. These CPs relate to technical, financial modeling matters, environmental matters, et cetera. All those are being worked through. We talk with -- I personally talked to the Department of Energy at least weekly or multiple times per week. Those are moving forward. And so it's a typical CPs to close a loan that are in place and we're working through those.

I've got one more question. Could you please explain how the Board assessed the risk of an ITC negative determination before the Department of Commerce announced its final duties given that the 160% tariff expectation was a key part of our investment thesis? How should shareholders trust the company's policy risk analysis going forward? And without that tariff protection, what specific measures will NOVONIX take to remain cost competitive against Chinese graphite producers?

Yes. So a comment on the ITC ruling that came out last month. This is something that actually came as a surprise to not only NOVONIX but really the entire industry as well as our battery customers. Most everyone was expecting it to go through because it was very much in line with the policies that have been set out by the U.S. government, whether it was the Department of Commerce, Department of Energy through the White House. And so that's why it came as a surprise. There is a replacement for that, that is something that might even be a little bit stronger. One day before the ITC ruling came out, which is March 12, March 11, the U.S. Trade Representative, the USTR, had launched a trade investigation into lots of different products that are affected by either excess capacity or forced labor. This is something that we believe is just a different policy that the federal government is using the U.S. federal government is using to identify and to combat any type of excess capacity. One of the things that was determined by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is different than the ITC was they found excess capacity They found that the Chinese graphite producers were being supported by the Chinese government, creating nonmarket conditions. And so we already have positive indications from the U.S. government for this. And so what I see is essentially the federal government just changing their policies and putting different essentially protections in place to allow critical mineral manufacturing to grow, including graphite. So this is something that we're watching and participating in very closely. We anticipate this summer or late summer for some of this investigation to wrap up. So we'll be able to see what happens there. But fundamentally, as I mentioned on some of the slide material, the process that NOVONIX is putting in place is more economic. And so from an energy perspective, from a consumables perspective, from a perspective, it is more efficient. The problem is you need to get up and running. You need to get started. You need to have a certain amount of scale to spread your fixed cost. And that's where some of these policies will be helpful to us. What I can also tell you is the contracts that we have in place from our battery manufacturers, they recognize that there's a security of supply problem with the supply being so highly concentrated in China. The pricing that we have in place today, lease contracts is at a premium over what the typical Chinese price. So that gives us certainly some relief. And then when you look at the premium that's embedded into this 45x tax credit, as we're discussing with battery manufacturers, they recognize that there's a significant financial advantage to sourcing non-Chinese material -- and so that's also giving us room for price premiums as we move forward and as we launch.

And one final question. The technology license agreement with Harper expired on 1 January 2026 because the initial payment was not made. Could you please explain why the payment was missed and whether this affects the operation of your existing graphitization furnaces? More importantly, for future expansions such as Enterprise South, does NOVONIX own the underlying intellectual property or will you need to renegotiate with Harper or find an alternative technology provider?

Yes. So with Harper, they are our furnace provider. Back in 2020, we do have an agreement that's still in place and still effective. It's an exclusivity agreement. So Harper effectively is not allowed to sell this type of furnace or furnace technology to other synthetic graphite companies that is still in place. We also are working with Harper as we as we build out furnaces and furnace technology. But this furnace was essentially built and designed to NOVONIX specifications as we have installed these furnaces, as we run these furnaces. We are learning more about them and how to make them more efficient. So a lot of this IP, a lot of this process IP and know-how is being developed by NOVONIX. It's not specifically the property and ownership of Harper but we do still have an agreement in place an exclusivity agreement. The licensing agreement that was negotiated and put in place was quite frankly, a very expensive agreement. And we're working collaboratively with Harper at this point and utilizing cash to make a licensing agreement for some future expansion wasn't the best use of cash. It's still a very collaborative relationship right now. And so we're going to continue to do that. So if we need to in the future, open that back up again and that it makes financial sense to go out and license it for whatever reason, then we can go back and revisit that. But what we're looking at is taking the cash that we have, putting it towards equipment that's going to fundamentally get us to start of production rather than put that cash towards licensing. And that's why we elected not to do it.

No further questions.

All right. Thank you.

Thanks, Mike. So in closing, the results of the meeting will be released through the ASX as soon as possible and will also be displayed on our website. On behalf of the Board and management, thank you to everyone who attended the AGM and to all those who engaged with us by submitting questions in advance and during the meeting. Thank you all for attending this AGM. We hope you and your family stay safe and well. And this concludes the official business of the meeting. I declare the 2026 AGM closed. Thank you very much.