We've entered a collaborative research project with CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, to support the optimisation and scale-up of our Dry Supersonic Deposition (DSD) battery technology. The project is co-funded through CSIRO's Kick-Start program, with a total budget of $100,000, CSIRO contributing up to $50,000 and Critical Resources funding the balance. Work is scheduled to begin in September 2026 and run for up to twelve months.

DSD is the manufacturing process at the heart of our licensable battery IP. It deposits battery materials without solvent, binder or a drying oven, which is a significant departure from conventional battery manufacturing. Peer-reviewed results published earlier this year confirmed the process works. This next step is about scaling it up: CSIRO's Lab22 facility in Victoria will build a "digital twin" model of the process to understand what causes defects and how to optimise it, using their advanced modelling capability rather than costly trial and error.

Our strategy remains to commercialise this technology through licensing rather than building our own manufacturing capacity. The value we're building is the process knowledge, patent position and engineering understanding a future partner would need. This project sits alongside, not instead of, our ongoing work with South Dakota Mines, where testing of the technology continues in parallel.

It's important to be clear on what this is and isn't. This is a research and modelling programme. No commercial agreement, licence or revenue arises from it, and there's no guarantee it will identify improvements, that those improvements will work in practice, or that a larger follow-on programme with CSIRO will go ahead. We'll keep reporting progress in that same measured way.

If you have questions about this announcement, we'd encourage you to ask them through the investor hub.