Denver, CO and Canonsburg, PA — January 5, 2026 — Intrepid Potash, Inc. (“Intrepid”, “our”, or “we”) (NYSE:IPI), Aquatech International, LLC (“Aquatech”), and Adionics today announce progress on their lithium development project in Wendover, Utah, with the successful completion of test work to produce a battery-grade lithium carbonate from byproduct brine at Intrepid’s Wendover, Utah potash facility.

Test Results Demonstrate Ability to Convert Brine to Battery-Grade Lithium Carbonate

The potential to develop a lithium processing facility in Wendover, Utah has continued to progress as Adionics and Aquatech successfully produced battery-grade lithium carbonate in a demonstration test of Intrepid’s Wendover brine. The testing results achieved a lithium extraction rate of 92.9%, producing an overall lithium chloride purity above 99.5%. The lithium that was produced from Adionics’ facility was further processed by Aquatech to validate the conversion and refining to battery-grade lithium carbonate. In additional testing, Aquatech successfully converted the lithium-rich brine to a ≥99.5% lithium carbonate product, meeting key specifications for battery manufacturing. With the successful testing results, the parties will continue to move forward under the current Joint Development Agreement (“JDA”) with their evaluation of a lithium facility in Wendover.

Kevin Crutchfield, Intrepid’s Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“We are very excited to partner with Aquatech and Adionics to continue the development of our lithium resource at Wendover. Advancements in direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies have come at the perfect time, as the United States has reprioritized increasing its production of critical minerals. We believe the existing infrastructure at our Wendover potash operation and the presence of lithium in our post-process brine differentiates this opportunity from other lithium development projects and we’re hopeful our Wendover lithium project will be among the first domestic projects to enter the market. For this project, we still plan to limit our capital exposure and risk, and will continue to maintain our focus on our core fertilizer operations, but successfully monetizing lithium from our byproduct magnesium chloride brine will constitute an important step forward in driving margin improvement at Wendover. We are pleased with the testing results that have allowed Aquatech and Adionics additional confidence to move forward with this project.”

Devesh Sharma, CEO of Aquatech, noted:

“We are excited about this project for many reasons, including the advantage we have by working with Intrepid to be able to access brine from Intrepid’s existing potash production site.

Coupled with the naturally high lithium concentration in the resource, we expect our integrated flowsheet will operate at an attractive marginal cost, allowing us to produce domestic lithium at a pace and cost point that can compete with global benchmarks.”

François-Xavier Rame, Adionics’ CEO, added:

“We are pleased to support Intrepid and Aquatech to process brine to produce a high-purity lithium product. Our preliminary testing results confirm that our liquid-liquid direct lithium extraction technology will likely be able to efficiently recover lithium from the complex brine. Our collaboration with Intrepid and Aquatech reflects our ambition to provide practical, resource-efficient solutions for lithium extraction.”

Joint Development Agreement

Intrepid, Aquatech and Adionics are working pursuant to a JDA, which establishes a framework for the parties to (i) complete comprehensive feasibility studies and detailed engineering of a 5,000 metric tonne lithium extraction facility with a goal of reaching final investment decision in 2026, (ii) advance project design and development of the project, and (iii) and negotiate definitive agreements to enable construction and operation of the proposed lithium project. The parties anticipate the lithium processing facility will use some of Intrepid’s existing infrastructure in Wendover, Utah, Aquatech’s expertise to design, develop and operate a lithium facility, and Adionics’ DLE technology to convert Intrepid’s post-process brine to lithium carbonate.