News Issue August 2023

Welcome to Issue Number 45 of the Calix Newsletter.

As we chalk up another financial year at Calix, we reflect on a year of dramatic growth in the footprint and capability of the company and look forward to what is set to be another landmark year in the Calix story.

The first half of the financial year contained a flurry of activity. We signed a first-of-a-kind licence agreement with Heidelberg Materials for cement decarbonisation; secured ARENA funding for further work on decarbonising iron and steel; executed a joint venture with Pilbara Minerals; and raised the capital required to continue developing our decarbonisation solutions. In the second half of the financial year, we also announced two exciting new applications: Direct Air Capture of atmospheric CO₂ in partnership with Heirloom, and provision of captured industrial CO₂ for sustainable transport fuels as part of the HyGATE funded Solar Methanol Project.

In more recent months, our focus has been firmly on the development and execution of our core projects. Our joint venture with Pilbara Minerals has moved full-steam ahead to construct a mid-stream demonstration plant for the sustainable production of a lithium salt here in Australia. We are delighted that the project has now passed its Financial Investment Decision point. The rapid progress of the project is testament to the talent and dedication of the Calix and Pilbara Minerals teams, and I am thankful for their huge effort over the past few months.

Our Zero Emissions Steel TechnologY or “ZESTY” R&D program continues our early, highly promising pilot-scale trials with a greatly expanded range of ore types from Australia and abroad. A recent visit of leaders from US industry, government and NGOs to our Leilac-1 pilot plant highlighted the increasing interest in cement decarbonisation and industrial carbon capture solutions following the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. You can read more on this visit, our progress with ZESTY and the development of decarbonisation solutions for the hard-to-abate shipping sector in the newsletter.

This edition of the newsletter also reports significant expansion of the US Water business. Two new hydration plants are near completion and will support new customers across several new states in the US. This growth continues to be driven by strong regulatory tailwinds that demand more sustainable solutions for water and wastewater treatment.

The Calix team has grown significantly over the 2023 Financial Year, and we continue to look for talented new recruits who share our passion and purpose. The growth of the company has also extended to new R&D facilities. A new laboratory, supported by a $1m grant from the Australian Government, is now up and running. It will provide a significant increase to our R&D capabilities, helping to relieve bottlenecks in our assessment of an ever-expanding pipeline of materials testing from interested counterparties across all our lines of business. FY23 also contained several notable internal sustainability initiatives, and this newsletter’s feature on the re-purposing of broken intermediate bulk containers in pursuit of our ambition to have 100% sustainable inputs is one such example.

Although FY23 contained many significant achievements and milestones for Calix, it looks like even more opportunities are emerging in FY24. I thank every member of our remarkable team for their continued effort to realise our potential, as well as our shareholders and partners for their support.

Phil Hodgson

Managing Director and CEO