Perpetua receives Defense Production Act Title III funding to advance construction readiness, environmental baseline monitoring and environmental studies as the Stibnite Gold Project continues through the permitting process

Stibnite Gold Project is poised to be the only domestically mined source of the critical mineral antimony, which is essential for national defense

Perpetua Resources Corp. (Nasdaq: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Perpetua Resources Idaho, Inc. was awarded a Technology Investment Agreement of up to $24.8 million under Title III of the Defense Production Act. The funding objective of the Technology Investment Agreement, issued by the Air Force Research Laboratory, is to complete environmental and engineering studies necessary to obtain a Final Environmental Impact Statement, a Final Record of Decision, and other ancillary permits to sustain the domestic production of antimony trisulfide capability for defense energetic materials.

Antimony trisulfide is essential to national defense as a key component for munitions yet there is no U.S. mined supply. Perpetua plans to re-establish a domestic supply of the critical mineral antimony as a by-product of one of the highest-grade open pit gold resources in the United States. The DPA funding allows the Company to advance the construction readiness of the Stibnite Gold Project while the Company continues through the ongoing permitting process, led by the United States Forest Service.

Under the funding agreement, Perpetua may request reimbursement for certain costs incurred over 24 months related to environmental baseline data monitoring, environmental and technical studies and other activities related to advancing Perpetua’s construction readiness and permitting process for the Stibnite Gold Project. The DPA funding does not interrupt the ongoing National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) review process. The DPA award is separate from the previously announced Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 funding awarded to Perpetua by the Defense Logistics Agency in September 2022.

“As Perpetua continues advancing our project through the permitting process, we are honored to enter this agreement to help advance our construction readiness for future development,” said Laurel Sayer, President and CEO of Perpetua Resources. “Our vision remains unchanged, which is to redevelop a world class gold deposit, provide the country with a critical mineral, and restore an abandoned brownfield site. Today, we continue to build momentum towards turning our vision into a reality.”

Perpetua’s proposed Stibnite Gold Project, located in central Idaho, is in the sixth year of review under NEPA. The project is designed to restore environmental conditions in the historic Stibnite mining district while responsibly redeveloping one of the highest-grade open pit gold resources in the U.S. and becoming the only domestically mined source of the critical mineral antimony.

Perpetua expects that current cash resources, combined with the full DPA agreement, would provide the Company with sufficient liquidity to complete permitting and early restoration activities on the current timeline as well as additional liquidity to begin advancing construction readiness.

“The Department’s DPA Investments Program is delivering on its core mission to restore domestic industrial capabilities essential to the national defense by enabling the warfighter,” said Halimah Najieb-Locke, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience. “This action reinforces the Administration’s goals to increase the resilience of our critical mineral supply chains while deterring adversarial aggression.”

About the Department of Defense’s Defense Production Act Title III Program:

The Defense Production Act is intended to ensure that America has the resources, materials and technologies needed for national security. The DPA Title III program is dedicated to ensuring the timely availability of essential domestic industrial resources to support national defense and homeland security requirements now and in the future.

In order to qualify for funding opportunities under the DPA Title III, proposed projects must meet the following criteria:

• The industrial resource, material, or critical technology item is essential to the national defense
• Without Presidential action, United States industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide the capability for the needed industrial resource, material, or critical technology item in a timely manner
• Purchases, purchase commitments, or other action pursuant to the DPA are the most cost effective, expedient, and practical alternative method for meeting the need

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. Further advancing Perpetua Resources’ ESG and sustainable mining goals, the Project will be powered by the lowest carbon emissions grid in the nation and a portion of the antimony produced from the Project will be supplied to Ambri, a US-based company commercializing a low-cost liquid metal battery essential for the low-carbon energy transition.  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.