Jay Wago brings over 20 years of experience in
the battery materials marketing and development space to
Westwater
Westwater Resources, Inc. (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy
materials development company, today announced a senior leadership
appointment to develop Westwater’s battery materials sales and
marketing practice with the hiring of Jay Wago as Vice President –
Sales and Marketing.
Christopher M. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer,
said, “After a comprehensive search process that yielded many
highly qualified candidates, we are very happy to have Jay join the
Westwater team. Jay is a proven leader and producer, whose unique
skills and experience will be instrumental in leading our sales and
marketing efforts for our battery graphite materials business
during this stage of growth and value creation. The addition of Jay
Wago will help position Westwater to scale its marketing efforts to
generate greater awareness of our American-made battery graphite
materials to end-users throughout the world.
“Importantly, today’s announcement represents a critical
milestone for Westwater in the development of our battery graphite
business. As we anticipate operation of our pilot plant to commence
later this year, where we will make battery graphite in bulk
quantities for customer testing, we strengthened our leadership
team to ensure our products are placed in the hands of those
decision makers that can evaluate our products for use in the
growing battery marketplace,” concluded Mr. Jones.
Mr. Wago, a highly experienced and accomplished battery
materials professional, comes to Westwater with over 20 years of
experience in the specialty chemical, lithium-ion battery and
electric vehicle value chains in the United States, Japan, Korea,
and China, working in leadership positions within companies such as
Albemarle, Dow Chemical and ITOCHU. Mr. Wago has a proven track
record of success as a B2B sales & marketing professional, as
well as an effective developer and leader of internal sales
organizations.
Mr. Wago’s skills and experience are particularly timely and
important as Westwater’s battery graphite enters into pilot plant
operations and feasibility studies scheduled to begin during the
fourth quarter of this year. Westwater plans to produce ULTRA PMG™,
ULTRA DEXDG™ and ULTRA CSPG™ in quantities sufficient for
qualification tests at potential customers during pilot plant
operations.
Mr. Wago previously earned a BSBA – Marketing degree from
Georgia State University.
Inducement Grant under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)
In connection with his appointment, the Compensation Committee
of the Westwater Board of Directors granted Mr. Wago a
non-qualified stock option to purchase up to 23,997 shares of the
Company’s common stock at a per share purchase price equal to $2.65
(which was the closing price of the Company’s common stock on June
30, 2020) and restricted stock units (RSUs) relating to 24,906
shares. The non-qualified stock option and the RSUs are being
granted to Mr. Wago as an inducement material to him accepting
employment with Westwater and are being granted outside of the
Westwater Resources, Inc. 2013 Omnibus Incentive Plan, as amended,
in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The
non-qualified stock option will vest on the first anniversary of
the grant date and will expire ten years from the grant date.
One-third of the RSUs will vest in equal amounts on December 31,
2020, 2021 and 2022, and the remaining two-thirds of the RSUs will
vest based on performance measures through fiscal 2022. The vesting
of shares underlying the non-qualified stock option and the RSUs is
subject to Mr. Wago’s continuous service with the Company through
each such vesting date and is subject to potential vesting
acceleration under certain circumstances pursuant to the terms of
his award agreements with the Company.
About Westwater Resources
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ: WWR) is focused on developing
energy-related materials. The Company’s battery-materials projects
include the Coosa Graphite Project — the most advanced natural
flake graphite project in the contiguous United States — and the
associated Coosa Graphite Mine located across 41,900 acres (~17,000
hectares) in east-central Alabama. Processing pilot plant
operations are scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2020, producing
ULTRA PMG™, ULTRA DEXDG™ and ULTRA CSPG™ in quantities that
facilitate qualification testing at potential customers. In
addition, the Company maintains lithium mineral properties in
prospective lithium brine basins in Nevada and Utah. Westwater’s
uranium projects are located in Texas and New Mexico. In Texas, the
Company has two licensed and currently idled uranium processing
facilities and approximately 11,000 acres (~4,400 hectares) of
prospective in-situ recovery uranium projects. In New Mexico, the
Company controls mineral rights encompassing approximately 188,700
acres (~76,000 hectares) in the prolific Grants Mineral Belt, which
is one of the largest concentrations of sandstone-hosted uranium
deposits in the world. Incorporated in 1977 as Uranium Resources,
Inc., Westwater also owns an extensive uranium information database
of historic drill hole logs, assay certificates, maps, and
technical reports for the western United States. For more
information, visit www.westwaterresources.net.
Cautionary Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and
assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,”
“estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” and
other similar words. All statements addressing events or
developments that WWR expects or anticipates will occur in the
future, including but not limited to statements relating to
developments and future production from the Coosa Project,
statements relating to the pilot plant and production therefrom,
and the performance of and market for the Company’s graphite
products, are forward-looking statements. Because they are
forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important
risk factors and uncertainties. These risk factors and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (a) the Company’s
ability to successfully integrate Alabama Graphite Corporation’s
business into its own, and the risk that additional analysis of the
Coosa Graphite Project may result in revisions to the findings of
WWR’s initial optimization study; (b) the Company’s ability to
raise additional capital in the future; (c) spot price and
long-term contract price of graphite, lithium, vanadium and
uranium; (d) risks associated with our operations and the
operations of our partners such as Dorfner Anzaplan and Polaris
Laboratories, including the impact of COVID-19; (e) operating
conditions at the Company’s projects; (f) government and tribal
regulation of the graphite industry, the lithium industry, the
vanadium industry, the uranium industry, and the power industry,
and government support for domestic uranium production and nuclear
power; (g) world-wide graphite, lithium, vanadium and uranium
supply and demand, including the supply and demand for
lithium-based batteries; (h) maintaining sufficient financial
assurance in the form of sufficiently collateralized surety
instruments; (i) unanticipated geological, processing, regulatory
and legal or other problems the Company may encounter in the
jurisdictions where the Company operates or intends to operate,
including in Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada; (j) the
ability of the Company to enter into and successfully close
acquisitions or other material transactions; (k) the results of the
Company’s lithium brine exploration activities at the Columbus
Basin and Sal Rica projects, and the possibility that future
exploration results may be materially less promising than initial
exploration result; (l) any graphite, lithium, vanadium or uranium
discoveries not being in high-enough concentration to make it
economic to extract the metals; (m) currently pending or new
litigation or arbitration; and (n) other factors which are more
fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K,
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these
risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the Company’s
underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary
materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue
reliance should not be placed on the Company’s forward-looking
statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any
obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of
the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200701005330/en/
Westwater Resources Contact: Christopher M. Jones, President
& CEO Phone: 303.531.0480 Jeff Vigil, VP Finance & CFO
Phone: 303.531.0481 Email: Info@WestwaterResources.net
Investor Relations Contact: Porter, LeVay & Rose Michael
Porter Phone: 212.564.4700 Email: Westwater@plrinvest.com
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Westwater Resources (NASDAQ:WWR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024