Nano One Pre-Qualifies Lithium and Phosphate Suppliers for LFP Cathode Production

Nano One Provides Update on Validated Feedstock Suppliers for LFP Cathode Production

• Diversified range of feedstock suppliers to support raw material provision in Development Company (DevCo) markets
• A total of six sources of lithium carbonate and phosphoric acid from the United States, Europe, Chile and Argentina have now been pre-qualified
• Suppliers of potential iron oxide material in Europe are now advancing through validation, with supply sources of lithium, iron and phosphoric acid in Canada now in pre-qualification
• Nano One’s One-Pot™ technology makes LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cathode active material (CAM) independent of China-produced iron phosphate precursor (pCAM)
• Focus on the energy storage application sector as the volume market, with defence applications being a smaller but strategic segment—future LFP product for target customers in those segments will be supported by the same feedstock base

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nano One® Materials Corp. (“Nano One” or the “Company”) (TSX: NANO) (OTCQB: NNOMF) (Frankfurt: LBMB), a process technology company specializing in cathode active materials (CAM) for lithium-ion batteries, is pleased to announce a key milestone in its feedstock qualification program. A diverse range of lithium carbonate and phosphoric acid suppliers have now been pre-qualified for LFP cathode production, with suppliers of iron oxide also advancing through validation. Input material sources have now been identified in multiple regions—including Canada, the United States, Europe, Chile and Argentina. This raw material supply chain and qualification work supports the Canada Development Company (“DevCo”) project announced September 11, 2026 and was undertaken at Nano One facilities in Canada—these work programs have also been supported by the Government of Canada, the Government of Québec and the U.S. Government.

Lithium and Phosphate Pre-Qualified, Iron Advancing Through Validation

Three lithium carbonate suppliers have now been pre-qualified, spanning material sources in Argentina and Chile, while a further two suppliers in the United States and Canada are in the process of pre-qualification. Three phosphoric acid suppliers have now been pre-qualified, from sources in the United States and Europe, with a further two development-stage sources in Canada commencing early-stage sampling work. An iron oxide supplier in Canada is advancing toward tonne-scale validation, with a source in Europe also in the process of validation—a further five potential suppliers of iron are in development.

Pre-qualification of feedstock involves the material being validated at pilot reactor scale using Nano One’s process for CAM quality and consistency. A typical feedstock qualification process may take up to two years to advance through A-Sample (gram to kg scale) to B-Sample (kg to tens of kg) to C-Sample (hundreds of kg to tonne-scale samples)—this early qualification work is important, as it will allow a shorter timeline and pathway to production for future planned LFP projects using Nano One’s technology.

Denis Geoffroy, Chief Operating Officer of Nano One, said:

Nano One has approached the building of LFP CAM production capacity outside of Asia with the objective of establishing an integrated supply chain from the ground up, in order to provide for greater self-resiliency going forward.

”Over the past few years, the Company has established key relationships with suppliers of input materials for lithium, iron and phosphate, and has now made significant progress in advancing those feedstock sources through qualification with its own proprietary processing technology, from a diverse range of suppliers across multiple continents. The establishment of a diverse and resilient supply chain network is key, as the energy storage sector continues to be the major driver of growth in LFP demand, with defence applications emerging as a small but strategic segment with the strictest content procurement policies on sourcing,”

Mr Geoffroy added,

Iron is seemingly everywhere, but the right purity, located and sourced from the right regions, simply isn’t,

“We have worked diligently, collaborating with the key supply chain partners and thanks to the Government of Canada’s recent support for iron feedstock diversification, have now been able to research and develop our technology to expand the universe of iron even further.”

One-Pot Removes the pCAM Chokepoint

Conventional LFP plants buy iron phosphate precursor (pCAM) and react it with lithium carbonate. The International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspectives 2026 puts China’s share of precursor cathode material above 95%, so a plant outside China that depends on pCAM inherits the concentration regardless of where it sits.

One-Pot removes the step. It makes LFP cathode directly from lithium carbonate, iron and phosphoric acid—raw materials produced in multiple jurisdictions—so provenance is managed at the raw-material level rather than accepted from a precursor supplier. As the process accepts a range of iron inputs, Nano One is qualifying iron oxide from producers in Europe and Canada, as well as iron from two U.S. producers. The process is patented and owned by Nano One.

The pre-qualification work also strengthens Nano One’s licensing strategy: licensees building plants on One-Pot can draw on pre-qualified feedstock specifications and sources rather than starting supplier qualification from the very beginning, which can lead to an accelerated path to operations for future projects sped up by 12+ months.

LFP for Energy Storage Secures Defence Supply

Energy storage is building the LFP industrial base, and defence is a dual-use segment of that market—a small but significantly strategic one. The Center for Strategic and International Studies notes that defence battery needs will remain a fraction of commercial demand¹, and the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) own 2026 outlook puts its lithium-ion demand in the hundreds of megawatt-hours a year², so defence buyers rely on the industrial base energy storage builds. Canada’s emerging cell-manufacturing base is also moving toward LFP. For the Company’s customers, lithium and phosphate have been pre-qualified for Candiac’s package, with iron oxide validation underway.

Canadian Inputs, Canadian IP, Canadian Priorities

Canada’s Critical Minerals List includes lithium, phosphorus and high-purity iron—the three inputs to LFP cathode³. Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy prioritizes secure supply chains for key inputs and Canadian-owned intellectual property⁴; Nano One’s One-Pot process is patented and Canadian-owned, part of a platform supported by over 50 granted patents held by the Company.

A Canadian iron oxide producer is advancing toward tonne-scale validation and the recently announced Canada DevCo project plans to connect domestic upstream resources to local LFP cathode production⁵. The Company is also qualifying early-stage samples from producers and developers in Canada across all three inputs—lithium, phosphate and iron—the focus being on building a supply base in tandem with resource owners and developers in Canada that are bringing their projects online in the coming years. The Candiac expansion is supported by the Government of Canada, the Government of Québec and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Europe

Europe is one of the DevCo jurisdictions identified in the Company’s August 26, 2026 strategy update, alongside Canada and the United States. The program has European sources for two of the three inputs: phosphoric acid has been pre-qualified, and iron oxide is in validation.

Procurement Rules Are Tightening

In the USA, Section 842 of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (10 U.S.C. § 4865) requires the Department of War (DoW) to procure advanced batteries whose functional cell components—including cathode materials—are not owned, sourced, refined or produced by a foreign entity of concern (FEOC), starting with new acquisition programs on January 1, 2028⁶. A battery qualifies only where final assembly is by a non-FEOC, more than 95% of functional-cell-component cost is non-FEOC, and it is produced without technology licensed from a FEOC.

The program documents the provenance of LFP cathode inputs for cell manufacturers subject to FEOC rules, and One-Pot is technology that Nano One owns. Under the U.S. Defense Production Act (DPA), a business producing in Canada qualifies as a domestic source⁷, along with the fact that Canada is part of the U.S. National Technology and Industrial Base⁸.

The Company continues to target initial commercial LFP supply agreements for small-scale defence and energy storage applications; commissioning of the expanded ~800 tpa Candiac capacity is expected in the first half of 2027⁹.

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Nano One Provides Update on Validated Feedstock Suppliers for LFP Cathode Production, source