Appointment of Experienced Lithium Executive Alex Cheeseman as Managing Director

Critical Resources Limited (ASX:CRR) (“Critical Resources” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the appointment of a highly experienced lithium-focused executive, Mr Alex Cheeseman as the Company’s new Managing Director, effective 10 October 2022.

The appointment of Mr Cheeseman, who has held the role of Non-Executive Director at the Company since January 2022, follows a wide-ranging and thorough global executive search process initiated in July 2022. Mr Cheeseman was selected due to his exceptional lithium industry experience, his proven leadership skills and his clear vision and plan to take Critical Resources from explorer through to producer.

With formal undergraduate and post graduate qualifications in capability development and acquisition, Mr Cheeseman has 21 years’ experience in a range of leadership and management roles, across a diverse array of industries. As a former military officer with numerous operational deployments, Mr Cheeseman has extensive experience managing high performance teams operating in multiple jurisdictions. The last decade of his career has been in the resources sector, with the last six and a half years focused exclusively within the lithium industry.

At Altura Mining, Mr Cheeseman held a key role in the delivery of the Altura lithium mine and processing plant, commencing at the start of bulk earthworks in early 2017, through to declaration of commercial production in 2019. Mr Cheeseman became responsible for marketing and export logistics, developing and extensive network throughout the lithium supply chain. During a challenging period for the lithium industry, he worked alongside the Chief Executive Officers’ of Pilbara Minerals and Galaxy Resources to lobby and be awarded royalty relief form the Western Australian state Government. In early 2021, Mr Cheeseman provided supply chain strategy and advisory services to both Rocktech Lithium and Green Lithium Refining Limited, and pre-IPO due diligence support to what is now Green Technology Metals (ASX:GT1). Since April 2021 Mr Cheeseman has held the position as CEO at Morella Corporation, which under his leadership has secured and advanced multiple lithium projects in Australia and the United States, recapitalized and re-enstated with the ASX, with the company growing from an implied market capitalization of $25M to approximately $150M.

Critical Resources’ Chairman Mr Robert Martin said:

“It is a pleasure to welcome Alex to the full time roll as Managing Director. Since joining the Company in January, Alex has been influential in developing a robust corporate strategy, orenetitating the Company to focus on lithium and taking initial steps to transition from explorer to producer.

As the lithium industry undergoes unprecedented global growth, there are very few executives that have been involved in the delivery of a hard-rock lithium project. With Alex’s project delivery experience, and his exceptional global network through out the lithium supply chain, we are extremely fortunate to have secured someone with both his industry experience and broader corporate leadership abilities.

The Board and I look forward to working with Alex and we are confident that this next stage of growth is going to be very an exciting time for the Company.”

A summary of Mr Cheeseman’s employment agreement can be seen in Appendix A.

Vesting of Performance Rights as a Non-Executive Director

The Company advises that, in accordance with the terms of its Tranche 1 Performance Rights issued to Mr Cheeseman in July 2022 (and as approved by Shareholders in Mary 2022), a total of 2,000,0000 of Mr Cheeseman’s tranche 1 performance rights have vested.

The performance milestone for the tranche 1 performance rights was achieving a volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Company’s Shares of at least $0.07, calculated over 20 consecutive trading days (20 day VWAP).

It is the Company’s intention to seek shareholder approval at the upcoming shareholder meeting for the cancellation of all unvested Performance Rights previously issued to Mr Cheeseman at the respective meeting date.

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