American Resources Corporation Successfully Completes First Phase of Commissioning Rare Earth and Battery Element Isolation and Purification Facility in Preparation of Initial Production

• Company successfully completes water flow and pressurization of system and moves to preparing chromatography columns for initial production
• First production train will recycle end-of-life rare earth magnets to produce magnet-grade neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium at 99.5%+ purity
• Second production train will recycle black mass from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries producing high-purity, battery-grade lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite

FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2022 / American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) ("American Resources" or the "Company"), a next generation and socially responsible supplier of rare earth and critical elements, carbon and advanced carbon materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace, today announced that its majority-owned American Rare Earth division has successfully completed the first phase of commissioning of its critical and rare earth element isolation and purification facility in Noblesville, Indiana enabling the Company to progress to preparing its chromatography columns for initial production.

Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources Corporation commented, "This is an extremely exciting accomplishment for the team to be able to test and complete the water commissioning and pressure testing of our initial rare earth and battery material purification facility on schedule. Jeff Peterson, Dave Sauve, Bill Smith, Jay Campbell and the Purdue team have worked countless hours advancing the facility to this stage. It's an extremely exciting time to be able to move forward to advance our domestic supply chain and get away from the dependency of foreign nations for the supply of these critically important materials. We believe this facility and technology will replace the environmentally and socially toxic solvent-based extraction for the isolation and purification of rare earth and battery elements utilizing a fraction of the space and inputs. Our next step is to move forward with the initial production of magnet metals necessary to make electric motors operate efficiently while also advancing on the initial battery material production train."

This commissioning phase of American Rare Earth's processing facility was focused on ensuring that the flow rates, pressurization and valves operated as they're intended. The team is now finalizing the preparation of their chromatography columns and moving towards initial throughput of material and production of isolated and purified rare earth elements. The Company estimates having its battery material production line, with the ability to purify individual battery elements, completed by the end of the third quarter of this year.

Rare Earth Element Isolation and Purification Production Trains
American Rare Earth intends to scale the output of its initial facility as well as a second-phase isolation and purification facility to meet the market's needs for rare earth elements to support new magnet and EV production in the domestic marketplace. The Company continues to develop its upstream and downstream partners and is in talks with various parties in the sector that are looking for magnet-grade oxides to be converted to alloys for rare earth permanent magnets. American Rare Earth forecasts scaling its initial facility and phase two facility over the next five years to process over 5 tons of magnet grade material per day.

Battery Element Isolation and Purification Production Trains
The Company's battery material production train utilizes its recently announced, patented multi-mode chromatography technology currently being deployed at its initial facility. With its launch and scale, this technology will uniquely capitalize on the demand for battery grade elements by processing black mass back to isolated, battery-grade materials such as lithium hydroxide, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite to serve the rapidly growing EV and energy storage marketplace. Over the next three to five years, American Rare Earth intend to scale its technology to produce 10 to 15 tons per day of battery grade materials from recycled black mass.

American Resources continues to focus on running efficient streamlined operations in being a new-aged supplier of raw materials to the infrastructure and electrification marketplace in the most sustainable of ways, while also helping the world achieve its goals of carbon neutrality. By operating with low or no legacy costs and having one of the largest and most innovative growth pipelines in the industry, American Resources Corporation works to maximize value for its investors by positioning its large asset base to best fit a new-aged economy, while being able to scale its operations to meet the growth of the markets it serves.

About American Resources Corporation
American Resources Corporation is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market. The Company is focused on the extraction and processing of metallurgical carbon, an essential ingredient used in steelmaking, critical and rare earth minerals for the electrification market, and reprocessed metal to be recycled. American Resources has a growing portfolio of operations located in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.

American Resources has established a nimble, low-cost business model centered on growth, which provides a significant opportunity to scale its portfolio of assets to meet the growing global infrastructure and electrification markets while also continuing to acquire operations and significantly reduce their legacy industry risks. Its streamlined and efficient operations are able to maximize margins while reducing costs. For more information visit americanresourcescorp.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About American Rare Earth LLC
American Rare Earth is redefining how critical and rare earth elements are both sourced and processed while focusing on the recycling of end-of-life products such as rare earth permanent magnets and lithium-ion batteries, as well as coal-based waste streams and byproducts to create a low-cost and environmentally-safe, circular supply chain. American Rare Earth has developed its innovative and scalable "Capture-Process-Purify" process chain in conjunction with its licensed intellectual property including 16 patents and technologies and sponsored research partnerships with three leading universities to support the domestic supply chain's growing demand for magnet and battery metals. For more information visit arareearthcorp.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond American Resources Corporation's control. The words "believes", "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", "continue", "seeks", "anticipates", "plans", "expects", "intends", "estimates", or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Any forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The Company cannot assure you that the projected results or events will be achieved.

PR Contact
Precision Public Relations
Matt Sheldon
917-280-7329
matt@precisionpr.co

Investor Contact:
JTC Team, LLC
Jenene Thomas
833-475-8247
arec@jtcir.com

RedChip Companies Inc.
Todd McKnight
1-800-RED-CHIP (733-2447)
Info@redchip.com

Company Contact:
Mark LaVerghetta
Vice President of Corporate Finance and Communications
317-855-9926 ext. 0
investor@americanresourcescorp.com

SOURCE: American Resources Corporation