Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Westwater Resources Q1 2026 conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Steven Cates, CFO. Steve, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Westwater Resources' 1st quarter 2026 business update. Our Form 10-Q was filed and issued yesterday after market close and is available in the investors section of our website at westwaterresources.com. Joining me on the call today are Terence Cryan, our Executive Chairman, and Frank Bakker, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Both will be available to answer questions following our prepared remarks.
As a reminder, today's discussion will include forward-looking statements regarding future events and expectations, including projected demand for graphite products, expected timelines and costs related to the Kellyton Graphite Plant and Coosa graphite deposit, financing activities, permitting timelines, and customer qualification efforts. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations.
Please refer to our SEC filings and the cautionary language included in our press release for additional detail. With that, I'll turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Terence Cryan.
Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Over the past several months, the battery materials industry has continued to evolve rapidly. Customers across the supply chain are adjusting procurement strategies and development timelines in response to shifting policies, tariffs, evolving end-market demand, broader geopolitical uncertainty. At the same time, the strategic importance of establishing a domestic supply chain for critical minerals like graphite has only become clearer.
Today, the United States remains almost entirely dependent on foreign sources of natural graphite, principally from China, despite graphite being essential to lithium-ion batteries, battery energy storage systems, and increasingly, defense and advanced industrial applications such as SMR nuclear reactors. Against this backdrop, Westwater continues to advance a vertically integrated mine-to-market graphite platform in Alabama designed to deliver secure domestic battery-grade graphite in the United States.
Our strategy connects two complementary assets. The first is the Coosa Graphite Deposit, the largest and most advanced natural flake graphite deposit in the contiguous United States. The second is the Kellyton Graphite Plant, where graphite concentrate will be processed into CSPG, the active anode material used in lithium-ion batteries. Importantly, we continue to believe Westwater has a multi-year first-mover advantage as the most advanced American developer of battery-grade natural graphite in the United States.
During the quarter, we advanced permitting efforts at Coosa, including receiving FAST-41 designation during the quarter, continued advancing construction and operational readiness at Kellyton, progressed customer qualification activities through our operational qualification line. FAST-41 is an important milestone for the project because it improves coordination and visibility across federal permitting activities. We view this as another step in accelerating progress in de-risking the long-term development pathway for Coosa.
While market conditions remain dynamic, our focus continues to be on execution and advancing our two core projects, and we're doing just that. Steve will talk further about our active engagement on capital formation, including our engagement with various government agencies on funding. With that, I'll turn the call over to Frank for an operational update.
Thanks, Terence. Good morning, everyone. I will begin with an update on the Kellyton Graphite Plant, which remains central to our mine-to-market strategy. During the first quarter, we continued construction and operational readiness activities at the site while also advancing customer qualification efforts. The qualification line was operational during the quarter and produced aggregate CSPG sample volumes exceeding 1 metric ton for customer evaluation and testing. This capability remains an important differentiator for Westwater and positions us ahead of many North American peers who remain several years away from providing qualification scale material.
We also continued operating our R&D laboratory to support product optimization, customer qualification activities, and internal quality control processes. At quarter end, approximately $29.6 million had been invested into Kellyton since inception of the project. Importantly, we continue to maintain our phase 1 capital estimate at approximately $245 million, including approximately $19 million of untouched contingency. Assuming financing is secured, we continue to expect initial production within approximately 12 months.
We continue to engage with prospective customers across the battery, automotive, industrial, and defense sectors. During the quarter, SK On notified us of its decision to terminate the product's procurement agreement originally executed in 2024. While market conditions remain dynamic, we believe this reflects the evolving environment customers are navigating across the broader battery supply chain. Both SK On as well as FCA want to put new agreements in place with WWR. Importantly, our commercial strategy remains unchanged.
We continue to provide product samples to prospective customers as part of ongoing qualification processes, and we continue to receive inbound interest from companies evaluating domestic sources of battery-grade graphite amid evolving trade policy, tariff considerations, and supply chain security concerns.
Turning to Coosa, we continued advancing permitting and development activities during the quarter. Most notably, Coosa received designation under the FAST-41 federal permitting program during the quarter. This designation supports improved coordination and transparency across federal agencies as permitting activities continue to advance.
During the second quarter, we anticipate a permitting timeline to be established and agreed to by the participating federal agencies. In addition, we continue geotechnical analysis, hydrologic monitoring, environmental studies, and preparation activities associated with the Section 404 permit application and Alabama air permitting.
We expect the permitting process to take approximately 12-24 months, after which we would look toward a decision on constructing and mine development. Overall, we continue to make meaningful progress across our vertically integrated graphite platform and believe Westwater remains well-positioned within the evolving domestic battery materials landscape. Steve, over to you.
Thanks, Frank. At the end of the first quarter, the company had approximately $41.5 million of cash on hand. During the quarter, we raised approximately $1.2 million from the ATM, which has approximately $71 million available under the facility. We also have approximately $26 million of undrawn committed capital on our ELOC facility. We remain confident in our ability to secure the remaining financing needed to complete phase 1 of Kellyton and move toward initial production.
As we continue to advance the project and operate our qualification line, we are focused on securing the right capital solution while preserving long-term shareholder value. We are prioritizing non-dilutive and lower-cost sources of capital, including potential government funding programs. To support these efforts, we have engaged a Tier 1 group of advisors and are actively evaluating the most efficient funding pathways available to us.
We and our advisors are spending quality time in D.C., and we are pursuing multiple funding opportunities across various federal agencies. These activities have included in-person meetings, submitting certain proposals and/or applications, and establishing data rooms for diligence. While we cannot comment on specific opportunities or provide an estimate as to the ultimate outcome of these efforts.
We and our advisors continue to believe we are in the middle of the domestic critical mineral fairway that has been a strategic focus of this administration. We are also maintaining flexibility to evaluate other funding alternatives and project-level financing structures, including equipment-based financing and other structured solutions. Our existing equity financing tools provide additional flexibility, and we will remain disciplined and thoughtful in how we utilize them. As we work to secure the remaining financing, we will continue managing liquidity carefully and aligning construction activity with available capital.
For the quarter, the company reported a net loss of approximately $4.7 million or $0.04 per share, compared to approximately $2.7 million or $0.04 per share during the same period last year. The increase in net loss was primarily related to increased permitting activities at Coosa, increased product development costs at Kellyton, and higher stock-based compensation expense. Overall, we believe our current liquidity position, disciplined capital management approach, and ongoing financing efforts in D.C. and beyond provide a solid foundation as we continue advancing our mine to market strategy. Frank, back to you.
Thanks, Steve. To close, our priorities remain clear. We are advancing a vertically integrated mine-to-market graphite platform designed to support a growing need for domestic battery materials in the United States. During the quarter, we continued progressing construction and qualification activities at Kellyton, advanced permitting efforts at Coosa, and strengthened our position as one of the most advanced domestic graphite developers in the U.S.
The broader market environment continues to evolve, but we believe the long-term need for secure domestic sources of battery-grade graphite is becoming increasingly important. We are focused on execution, disciplined capital allocation, and advancing our projects toward production. We appreciate your continued interest and support. Operator, we would now be happy to take questions.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright. Heiko, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thank you, guys, so much for taking my questions. You're obviously quite a bit closer to the pulse than I am. Maybe if you could provide callers a little bit of additional context in addition to what you already brought up in your prepared remarks of what you're seeing with prospective graphite customers, government agencies, you know, the timelines that they're seeking, sizing, the avoidance of geopolitical risk factors. I mean, you hinted at this a little bit more in your prepared remarks, and just other things that may not be as obvious from your release or presentation or, you know, things that maybe we could elaborate on a little bit to the clients as well.
Hi, Heiko. This is Steve. Thanks for the question. Thanks for joining. Are you able to hear me?
Yes. I said, "Of course.
I think what we're seeing in the broader market when it just comes to graphite, you know, we're seeing obviously, you know, we talked about in our prepared remarks, there's been some uncertainty in the market conditions related to the on-and-off again of tariffs and certain trade policies. The long-term story really hasn't changed.
You know, what we're seeing by the likes of Benchmark and others is that the demand for North American graphite still outweighs the forecasted supply by a significant margin. I think one of the things that's really driving that is you've got the AI data centers, battery energy storage systems behind there, whether that's nuclear and industrial applications, as well as some of the traditional markets that our investors have been familiar with as far as EVs and those, they're still forecasted to grow. They're growing globally.
While the near-term market has faced some uncertainty with some of these tariff policies, the long-term prospect is still strong. From a Westwater perspective on what we're positioning ourselves also as we talk to government agencies and look for funding is if someone's looking for anode material in 2027, 2028, and 2029, Westwater is really your only viable source right now.
Most of these other companies maybe are at lab scale, maybe PowerPoint. We have our buildings built. We've got a qualification line running in 1-ton batches. We're in a very significant advantage from a timing perspective, and we have capacity to be able to sell. We're looking across a lot of markets. I think that is intriguing to a lot of potential customers as well as potential funders as well.
Fair enough. Okay. Then, just for our modeling needs, can you give a bit of color on the capital spend at site on a quarterly basis for the remainder of 2026? Maybe, if I gave you a blank check today, how much would you like to spend?
Well, that depends.
I think those numbers are not necessarily the same.
Right. Well, I think if, you know, the funding that we're looking for today, right, the whole project, we still believe is $245 million. That includes almost a $20 million untouched contingency. We put $130 million into the ground. You know, we're sub $100 million, over $40 million on the balance sheet. I think, you know, like we said in our last call, we're still near, you know, somewhere around $50 million, and we're substantially complete with funding. Having that in place, we're 12 months from commercial production, and so that's still our focus now.
From a capital spend perspective going forward, I think what you can expect is taking a moderate approach. I think we announced in the fourth quarter, we talked about putting some long lead equipment, orders in for some additional stuff we need, in our coating process, and a couple of processes there. That probably you'll see kinda come out in the next couple of quarters, but it's not really significant. We're gonna be measured with our spend, and I like to say kinda move at the speed of cash.
Sure. I'll follow this up with one more. I mean, you know, I look at, you know, companies like Caterpillar that just have, you know, very long lead times. Other capital goods too. What are you seeing in regards to waiting periods now versus, I'll call it six, nine, 12 months ago?
Yeah. Heiko, t his is Frank.
Hey, Frank. How are you?
Hey. Morning. What we see is that the lead time, manufacturing time for the equipment we need to order is about three, four months, and then you need to include shipping. In about six months, we can have all the remaining equipment at site.
Perfect. I'll get back in queue and stop hogging the queue. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Sotelo with Maxim Group. Matthew, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hey, Terence, Frank, and Steve, this is Matt on for Tate. Thank you for taking my question. I was wondering if you can give us some more detail on the customer qualification pipeline. I guess specifically, how far along is your most advanced customer process going, and where do the others stand relative to that?
We're working with different customers. We sent 1 kg samples, 10 kg samples to customers, large scale samples. We received positive feedback. Some customers are pretty far along in their qualification process. I think the last step for the qualification will be when we have the production plant finished, and then provide the mass production sample to the customer, and then they can do the final qualification. Overall, we are positive in working with our customers, and we get positive feedback.
Thank you for that. To follow up, just in terms of the step-up process at Kellyton, given production begins on time and there is offtake agreements in place, potentially, how long does it take to get near capacity?
We anticipate once financing is in place, that we need another 12 months to start the initial production. If you look at where we are now, all the buildings are finished, so that will help on the construction effort, so there will be no weather impact. We can do the construction in parallel in the different buildings. We already installed a part of the equipment. I think looking at the risk of delays, that's minimal with the way we approach it.
The other thing is that we've put storage silos in between the different process units, so we can commissioning and start up one unit while we're still constructing the other unit. We can have a phased approach on our construction and our commissioning and startup efforts. Next to that, we have our qualification line, which has similar equipment, and we're running our qualification line with the team at site. That, I think, will also reduce the risk of any commissioning or startup issues that we might encounter.
That's great. Super helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.
There are no further questions at this time. We have reached the end of the Q&A session. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.