Perpetua Resources Corp. (Nasdaq: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA) announced that it has been awarded up to $6.9 million in additional funding from the U.S. Army via the Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium. The funding builds on the $15.5 million awarded to the Company by DOTC under an Ordnance Technology Initiative Agreement in August 2023. The funds are being applied to testing intended to demonstrate the feasibility of using material sourced from Perpetua’s Stibnite Gold Project to produce military-specification antimony trisulfide, a critical component in certain munitions and advanced defense systems. The OTIA is intended to fund the development and delivery of a flexible, modular pilot plant to the U.S. Army to process antimony and other materials of Department of Defense interest. The additional funding is intended to enable Perpetua to expand material sampling and to increase the scope and size of the flexible, modular pilot plant that was contemplated under the original OTIA.

“We are honored to continue our work with the U.S. Army to secure a domestic source of antimony trisulfide,” said Jon Cherry, President and CEO of Perpetua Resources. “Advancing America’s capabilities to process minerals critical to national defense is essential for our long-term mineral independence and resilience. We are proud to play our part in furthering the Army’s “ground-to-round” critical minerals strategy.”

This award is part of a broader partnership between Perpetua Resources and the Department of Defense to secure domestic sources of critical minerals. In 2023, as part of the OTIA, Perpetua received an award worth up to $15.5 million through the DOTC program to demonstrate a fully domestic antimony trisulfide supply chain. This supplemental award allows the Company to expand the research already in progress under the OTIA and support the U.S. Army’s objective of establishing a fully domestic “ground-to-round” antimony trisulfide supply chain. With the receipt of this latest additional funding, Perpetua has now been awarded, in the aggregate, more than $80 million by the Department of Defense.

“Antimony trisulfide is an essential and non-replaceable component to over 300 types of munitions, making it important to source in America. Establishing a fully domestic supply chain of this critical mineral is foundational to keeping America’s warfighters safe,” said Colonel Steven Power, Project Manager, Maneuver Ammunition Systems (PM MAS) at the Picatinny Arsenal.

Under the OTIA, Perpetua will be reimbursed for these activities on a cost-plus fixed fee basis over the period of performance, which was extended through the end of calendar year 2026 in connection with the additional award. The aggregate total funding amount of up to $22.4 million under the OTIA is subject to adjustment by DOTC based on scope, costs, budget, or other factors as the program advances. Perpetua will be entitled to reimbursement for all costs incurred under the agreement.

The Project, which is expected to supply up to 35 percent of U.S. antimony demand during its first six years of operations based on the 2023 USGS antimony commodity summary, represents a crucial step toward restoring American supply chain resilience. In 2024, China, which controls the majority of the global antimony market, cut off antimony exports to the United States. In addition to providing for American national security, the Project is designed to create hundreds of family-wage jobs, restore fish access to critical spawning habitat, address legacy environmental contamination, and improve water quality at an historical abandoned mine site.

About the Department of Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium:

The DOTC serves as the focal point for armaments system technology research and development. The industrial and academic component of DOTC is the National Armaments Consortium which consists of over 1,000 companies.

DOTC’s mission, in partnership with NAC, is to enhance our warfighters’ lethality, survivability and combat effectiveness by facilitating the industrial and academic research, development and technology demonstrations needed to advance and expand our military technological superiority. DOTC is sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and is utilized by all Services and Defense Agencies to design, develop and demonstrate prototypes for armaments. NAC is the largest collaborative organization working with the DoD to develop armament technologies in support of our nation’s security.

The NAC is comprised of our nation’s leading technologists, engineers, designers, scientists, manufacturers, and program managers across industry, academia and our nation’s laboratories, all with the mission to develop armaments that give the U.S. a technological edge over our enemies. Together, DOTC offers government customers a better way of doing business through streamlined acquisition and collaboration across a broad spectrum of industrial and academic partners.

About Perpetua Resources and the Stibnite Gold Project

Perpetua Resources Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration, site restoration and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho that are encompassed by the Stibnite Gold Project. The Project is one of the highest-grade, open pit gold deposits in the United States and is designed to apply a modern, responsible mining approach to restore an abandoned mine site and produce both gold and the only mined source of antimony in the United States. Perpetua Resources has been awarded a Technology Investment Agreement (“TIA”) of $59.2 million in Defense Production Act Title III (“DPA”) funding to advance construction readiness and permitting of the Project. Antimony trisulfide from Stibnite is the only known domestic source of antimony that can meet U.S. defense needs for many small arms, munitions, and missile types. In addition to the company’s commitments to transparency, accountability, environmental stewardship, safety and community engagement, Perpetua Resources adopted formal ESG commitments which can be found here.