American Resources Corp (AREC)

[RandyKCMO]

Fourth Quarter Release: American Resources Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Record Full Year 2022 Financial Results and Provides Business Outlook

2022 revenues increased over 400% vs. 2021 and carbon operations continue to scale

The first domestic, commercial producer of separated and high-purity REEs from recycled permanent magnets and high-purity battery elements from recycled lithium-based batteries

Company's patented chromatographic separation and purification process defining itself as the world-leading critical mineral refining technology

Strong balance sheet provides financial strength and flexibility to execute on its innovation, collaboration and growth plans

Company to host update conference call today at 4:30 PM ET

FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / March 30, 2023 / 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 financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022. The Company will host a conference call and webcast, today, March 30, 2023, at 4:30 PM ET (details below).

Mark Jensen, Chairman and CEO of American Resources Corporation commented, "Throughout 2022 we further established our pillars of growth and have uniquely positioned our businesses to capitalize on defined growth opportunities across the markets we serve. We believe the past year, where we realized record revenues, marks an exciting inflection point in our transformational evolution as a Company. Our American Carbon division is uniquely positioned to provide incremental metallurgical carbon to a supply constrained global steel market, with a relatively much lower capital cost, given the assets we own and the restructuring we have already completed. ReElement Technologies has become the most exciting entity we have ever been a part of as it establishes itself as a world-leading critical mineral refining technology. The critical and rare earth elements we refine are imperative to operate our modern-day technology including electric vehicles, clean energy and defense applications. ReElement's patented chromatographic separation and purification technology addresses the biggest bottleneck within our domestic and global supply chain. We believe our proven ability to sustainability produce ultra-pure critical mineral products in a smaller, cleaner and lower cost footprint while having the ability to be highly flexible to the feedstocks we refine is revolutionary not only for the U.S., but for the entire planet. Lastly, our American Metals division is a platform which has ample opportunity to leverage ReElement's refining capabilities by diversifying into other metals and feedstocks to process, including battery material processing and recycling. In retrospect, we have achieved some very material milestones over the past two years since announcing our ReElement division, and we continue to focus on timely execution to solidify our strategic positioning within the value chain."

2022 Key Division Highlights

ReElement Technologies

Achieved groundbreaking success as the first in the United States to produce greater than 99.5% pure rare earth elements [dysprosium (Dy), neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr)] and 99.9% pure lithium at commercial scale, in isolated forms and from sustainable sources including end-of-life permanent magnets and lithium-based batteries.

Continued to buildout a best-in-class team to drive operations expertise and strategic vision including Director of R&D Dr. Yi Ding, COO, Jeff Peterson, CCO, Chris Moorman, Technical Advisor and Director of Engineering, Bill Smith and Director, Bob Galyen.

Established the first domestic, critical mineral, advanced refining facility in Noblesville, Indiana focused on sustainability and circular supply chain, and has paved the way with site selection, design, engineering and initial development of its large scale, high capacity refining facility.

Established partnerships with two of the leading domestic rare earth magnet platforms: 1) USA Rare Earth Magnets, LLC to develop the nation's first fully domestic and circular supply chain for rare earth magnet manufacturing, and 2) Advanced Magnetics Lab, Inc. (AML) to provide high-purity raw material for their domestic magnet production and made an investment to further advance AML's technology and commercialization.

American Carbon

Positioned its McCoy Elkhorn complex as initial driver of carbon production growth given feedstock of high-quality metallurgical carbon deposits and processing capacity with the following initiatives:

Commenced production at its greenfield Carnegie 2 metallurgical carbon mine to supplement its existing Carnegie 1 mine.

Secured approval for advanced mining plans to increase production at its Carnegie mines including a deep cut mine plan at its Carnegie 1 mine, a continuous haulage bridge section at its Carnegie 1 mine, and a second mining section at its Carnegie 2 mine.

Commissioned one of its two processing facilities at McCoy Elkhorn for internal carbon processing, third-party processing and carbon loading.

Positioned Wyoming County Coal as its next driver of growth with the federal commitment in the form of $4.9 million in New Market tax Credits to go alongside the preliminary approval for a $45 million volume cap allocation from the state if West Virginia for private activity, Solid Waste Disposal Facility Revenue Bonds. These two non-dilutive capital sources will support the development of two underground deep mines to produce premium, mid-vol metallurgical carbon, upgrade to the existing processing facility and development of its patented electrolysis technology to process associated waste streams into critical mineral concentrates.

Corporate

Elevated its shareholder-focused and value-creative culture by establishing a special committee to evaluate strategic opportunities that can unlock the value of the Company. Accordingly, the special committee instituted the following initiatives:

Implemented a stock repurchase program for up to a $10 million.

Repurchased a 7.5% interest of ReElement Technologies, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of American Resources.

Filed a Form10 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") for the planned spin-off of its ReElement Technologies division into a standalone public company.

Strengthened its balance sheet and financial flexibility through the conversion of the Company's last convertible debt, whereby Golden Properties Ltd. elected to convert all of their Senior Convertible Debentures due March 31, 2023 to shares of class A common stock of the Company in a move that reduces the debt of the Company by over $9 million.

"Looking forward to the remainder of 2023, our belief in and excitement over the opportunities we have in front of us continues to reach an all-time high. We have positioned our McCoy Elkhorn complex as American Carbon's primary growth asset as we continue to expand production at our set of Carnegie mines, as we restart our onsite processing capacity and have redeployed certain assets from Perry County to support additional growth. Beyond Carnegie 1 and 2, we are planning and developing two, fully-permitted mines to supply our McCoy Elkhorn complex with additional low-cost, high quality metallurgical carbon for the global steel industry. Over the past several months, we have stockpiled approximately $6 million of met carbon production at McCoy Elkhorn as we prepared our processing plant to fully come online. Additionally, we are confident that our significant processing capabilities at McCoy Elkhorn will provide us ample third-part processing and loading opportunities with minimal additional capital expenditures," continued Mr. Jensen.

"The opportunity for ReElement Technologies continues to manifest at a very rapid pace and continues to be bolstered by our tremendous team and partnerships. Now that we have showcased commercial success for refining both rare earth and critical battery elements, we are confident that our refining technology will be recognized as the most efficient and viable standard as the foundation and infrastructure of this energy transition is stood up. As this transition continues to take hold, it is worth noting that our critical mineral needs are expected to exponentially increase, and high purity products will be imperative for manufacturing. As such, we believe our value-added services and collaborative approach will be continue to bolster our upstream and downstream partnerships and unlock the value of ReElement as we position it as a standalone public company."

Expected Near-Term Catalysts

Continued increase in carbon production to meet growing market demand.

Closing of $45 million West Virginia tax-exempt industrial development bonds for Company's Wyoming County advanced carbon and rare earth processing facility.

Additional ReElement Technologies upstream and downstream partnerships to bolster feedstocks of end-of-life products and ores for critical and REEs and offtake customers of sustainable and domestic sources of high-purity battery and magnet metals.

Showcase commercial efficacy of using patented chromatography process to produce ultra-pure lithium hydroxide or carbonate from spodumene ore.

Continue to scale critical mineral refining capacity with the procurement of large-scale facility and co-located facilities through partnerships.

Conference Call Information

American Resources management will host a conference call for investors, analysts and other interested parties today, Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 4:30 PM ET.

Interested participants and investors may access the conference call by dialing [phone] and referencing American Resources Corporation's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Conference Call, or by the webcast link: here.

Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Year-End December 31, 2022

For the full year of 2022, American Resources reported a net income loss of $1.45 million or a loss of $0.02 per share for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, as compared with a net income loss $32.4 million or loss of $0.59 per share for the full year of 2021. The Company earned adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, accretion on asset retirement obligations, non-operating expenses and non-cash impairment (‘adjusted EBITDA") of $6.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, as compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $22.8 million in 2021.

For the fourth quarter of 2022, American Resources reported net income of $9.5 million, or $0.14 per share, as compared with a net income loss of $10.4 million, or a loss of $0.17 per share, in the prior year period. The Company earned adjusted EBITDA of $11.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, as compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $6.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2021.

Fourth Quarter 2022 Summary

Total revenues were $4.68 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to revenues of $4.54 million during the fourth quarter of 2021. General and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter of 2022 were $1.1 million compared to $1.3 million in the prior year period. American Resources incurred interest expense of $457,136 during the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to $1.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2021. Development costs during the quarter were $6.18 million, compared to $3.69 million in the third quarter of 2022.

Full Year 2022 Summary

Full year 2022 revenues were $39.5 million compared to full year 2021 revenues of $7.76 million. The Company realized record revenue in 2022, and a greater than 400% increase over 2021 annual revenue, as it grew production at its McCoy Elkhorn complex while being offset by the idling of its Perry County Resources complex due to labor disruptions resulting from the catastrophic floods that hit eastern Kentucky in August 2022. The Company has redeployed certain assets, including labor, from its Perry County Resources complex to its McCoy Elkhorn complex to support its continued organic growth. The Company is currently realizing a higher and more consistent production schedule at its McCoy Elkhorn complex, including a second operating section at its Carnegie 2 mine, and has stockpiled approximately $6 million of metallurgical carbon over the past several months as it commissions its onsite processing facility to fully operate. Development costs during 2022 were $28.1 million compared to $18.1 million during 2021 and better positions the Company within the markets in which it serves and to meet growing demand while realizing a healthy pricing environment.

The Company did not incur any income tax expense in 2022 as it was able to utilize its available net operating losses ("NOL") carried forward from prior periods of approximately $23.8 million as of December 31, 2022.

AMERICAN RESOURCES CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS


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Investor Contact:

JTC Team, LLC
Jenene Thomas
833-475-8247
[e-mail]

RedChip Companies Inc.
Todd McKnight
1-800-RED-CHIP (733-2447)
[e-mail]

Company Contact:

Mark LaVerghetta
Vice President of Corporate Finance and Communications
317-855-9926 ext. 0
[e-mail]

SOURCE: American Resources Corporation



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