Company Announcements

VANCOUVER, BC , Aug. 28, 2025 /CNW/ - BQE Water Inc. (TSXV: BQE), a leader in the treatment and management of mine impacted waters, is pleased to release its interim consolidated financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025.

"In Q2 2025, we continued the momentum from the first quarter and grew our technical services revenues to $15.6 million for the first half of the year. We advanced several projects in Canada, USA, and China into the commissioning stage, and continued with the temporary water treatment operations for the emergency response at Eagle Gold Mine," said David Kratochvil, President & CEO of BQE Water. "We expect strong results over the next two quarters as we continue to complete these large projects, with potential for generating new recurring revenue from these projects."

• Record revenues under GAAP and Proportional Revenues of $11.3 million and $12.9 million in Q2 2025 respectively, compared to $3.4 million and $6.1 million in Q2 2024.
• Historical high in technical services revenue for a 3-month period of $10.1 million in Q2 2025 compared to $856,000 in Q2 2024.
• Gross margin of $3.7 million in Q2 2025 compared to $1.6 million in Q2 2024, a $2.1 million increase.
• Net income of $1.9 million in Q2 2025 compared to $560,000 in Q2 2024, a $1.3 million increase.
• Earnings per share (basic) of $1.48 in Q2 2025 compared to $0.44 in Q2 2024.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $2.5 million in Q2 2025 compared to $1.3 million in Q2 2024, a $1.1 million increase.
• Working capital of $16.2 million at June 30, 2025, compared to $12.6 million at December 31, 2024, a 28% increase.

Selected financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025 are as follows:

We are very pleased to report record second quarter financial results, following on the heels of our record first quarter. The key areas that contributed to our year-to-date results for 2025 in technical services, recurring operations revenue, and our share of revenue from China joint ventures are as follows:

• We delivered record technical services revenue of $15.6 million for the first six months in 2025, with seven major projects at varying stages of completion accounting for over 90% of this total. We completed construction of a new plant as part of a broader tailings remediation project, where our scope included traditional engineering and commissioning services as well as the supply and installation of a water treatment plant and related equipment. This combination of scope is not a typical contract arrangement for us and is unlikely to be repeated in the near term.
• Our recurring revenue from water treatment operations decreased by $1.4 million in 2025 when compared to the same period in 2024 for two primary reasons: (1) we were not operating at Minto Mine in 2025 and (2) as previously reported, we reduced our scope of services at a plant in the Southwest US on the renewal of our contract. Our Minto Mine operations team was fully transitioned to the Eagle Mine in 2025. Although we have generated steady monthly revenues from Eagle Mine since Q3 2024, and water treatment operations represent the key component of our services there, we do not include services at Eagle Mine as recurring operations revenue. While we renewed our contract twice with the receiver of Eagle Mine, the status and future requirements of the site are not yet known.
• The metals recovery revenue from the JCC-BQE joint venture was significantly lower than last year mainly due to a 52% reduction in copper production when compared to the same period in 2024. Revenue from metals recovery from China continues to fluctuate and its contribution to BQE Water's overall performance has diminished.

While we are disappointed with the decline in our recurring revenue in 2025, we don't consider it to be indicative of a long-term trend reversal. Our strategic focus on growing our recurring revenue remains unchanged. We are developing new tools and avenues to support and possibly accelerate its growth. One example is our recently announced investment and expansion into aquatic toxicology services, which has the potential to open direct channels to existing operating plants.

Our current pipeline features a healthy mix of early-stage and well-advanced stage projects. The advanced stage projects are expected to move into construction with possible recurring operations revenue. Our pipeline of new and early-stage projects in 2025 reflects several notable trends:

• Selenium management features strongly in all of our new early-stage projects in 2025.
• BQE Water's leadership and expertise in applying ion exchange (IX) on an industrial scale is being recognized.
• The number of SART projects has increased significantly, likely due to the strength of the precious metals sector.
• We have started working on projects in different areas of the metals mining and extraction market, including:
  • Wastewater treatment integrated into rare earth elements recovery;
  • Cyanide and metals cyanide complexes removal to meet ultralow limits of single digit ppb for environmental compliance;
  • Lithium brine purification to manage impurities;
  • Cobalt/nickel recovery from wastewater as a way of offsetting long-term water treatment costs;
  • Cobalt recovery as a primary resource; and
  • Rhenium purification.

For the remainder of 2025, we continue to have good visibility and certainty over existing operations contracts and several large technical services contracts. As such, we expect strong results over the next two quarters.

Our operational services consist of the operation or technical supervision of water treatment plants, which generate recurring revenues from three main sources: sales of recovered metals, water treatment fees and operations support fees. The Company's operations by source of revenue are as follows:

JCC-BQE Joint Venture Operations

Our 50/50 joint venture with partner Jiangxi Copper Company ("JCC") operates three water treatment plants at Dexing Mine and at Yinshan Mine in Jiangxi province of China. The volume of water treated, and metals recovered by the plants fluctuate seasonally depending on precipitation levels in the region. The operating results for the three and six months ended June 20, 2025 are as follows:

In Q2 2025, all three plants met mechanical availability and process performance set by the Company. The volume of water treated decreased by 25% and the mass of copper recovered decreased by 49% when compared to Q2 2024. Such changes in water volume and metal grade in feed water from period to period are largely the result of environmental conditions beyond the control of the joint venture.

MWT-BQE Joint Venture Operations

Our 20% share of MWT-BQE is with our 80% partner Beijing MWT Water Treatment Project Limited Company ("MWT") and together we operate a water treatment plant at a smelter in Shandong province of China. Starting Q1 2025, MWT-BQE amended the contract with the customer from generating revenues from the sale of recovered metals to water treatment fees for the treatment of smelter wastewater. Operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025 are as follows:

BQE Water Operations

The number of operating days contributing to water treatment or support fees for three and six months ended June 30, 2025 are as follows:

The volume of water treated by geographic location for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025 are as follows:

The Company, with our Inuit partner Nuvumiut Development, operates four water treatment plants at Raglan Mine for Glencore Canada Corporation ("Glencore"). During Q2 2025, we mobilized our operations team to site to commence our 22nd operating season at the mine. Operational activities were initiated in early May and treated water discharge began in the same month.

In 2021, we began operations of the Zhongkuang SART plant and the Zhaojin SART plant at metallurgical facilities in China. Both plants have been under our technical supervision since the start of full production. Both SART plants operated fully throughout Q2 2025 without disruption.

In 2022, we began operations of a treatment plant utilizing our Selen-IX™ process to remove selenium from ash pond water for WesTech Engineering ("WesTech"). In Q2 2025, our team continued at site providing water treatment services with the Selen-IX™ circuit to manage the presence of selenium in the feed.

In January 2022, we completed the commissioning of a treatment plant utilizing a combination of nanofiltration and our proprietary selenium electro-reduction process for the simultaneous removal of selenium and sulphate from mine water for a base metal project in the American Southwest. In August 2023, our team completed the performance test milestone for a 2nd newly constructed selenium removal water treatment plant which entered the operation phase. Starting April 2025, we have reduced our scope from full operations of the treatment plant to operations support by providing technical onsite supervision at the treatment plants.

BQE Water's technical expertise and IP are applicable globally across broad areas of water management. Highlights of some of our technical services and technical innovation projects during Q2 2025 are summarized below.

• Completed the construction and initiated the commissioning phase of a water treatment facility to support the clean-up of legacy tailings site in the Yukon.
• Continued to provide ongoing advisory and water treatment services in response to the environmental emergency caused by a heap leach failure at the Eagle Gold Mine in the Yukon.
• Continued plant operations support and engineering services to an actively producing mine requiring improvements to their existing treatment in the Yukon.
• Commenced the commissioning process of a selenium removal plant using BQE's Selen-IX™ to meet end-of-pipe limit of less than 2 parts per billion at a gold mine in US.
• Continued assisting an integrated lead smelter-recycling facility in Eastern Canada with completing upgrades to existing treatment system and implementation of new sulphate removal stage to a discharge limit less than 1,500 mg/L and initiated operations support for the newly upgraded facility.
• Initiated preparations for on-site pilot demonstration of Selen-IX at an operating mine in the US using the company's mobile unit.
• Completed a technical assessment of recovering cobalt and nickel from acid mine wastewater using ion exchange at an operating mine owned by a Canadian producer.
• Initiated lab testing of lithium brine purification using ion exchange for a customer in Canada.
• Provided field commissioning and operations support for a water treatment system integrated into a rare earth extraction pilot plant in Brazil.
• Provided engineering services to support the completion of a feasibility study involving water treatment as part of a rare earth extraction project in Chile.
• Completed preliminary engineering aimed to expand rhenium production at an existing facility using ion exchange.
• Initiated a study to assess methods of improving quality of recycled water to help increase metallurgical performance at an operating mine in Mexico.

• Continued to provide plant engineering design services to a US project requiring the end-of-pipe cyanide level below 8 ppb.
• Completed a preliminary technical assessment of SART integrated into an existing gold metallurgical facility in Chile.
• Initiated a study aimed at improving tailings water quality by implementing SART at a gold metallurgical facility in Canada.
• Initiated a preliminary economic assessment of SART to be integrated into an existing heap leach operation in the US.
• Initiated the design for construction of a SART plant at a mine in Mexico.
• Advanced to the commissioning stage for Shandong Gold for the third SART plant in China.

For a complete set of Financial Statements and MD&A, please go to www.bqewater.com.

About BQE Water

BQE Water is a service provider specializing in water treatment and management for metals mining, smelting and refining. We are helping to transform the way the industry thinks about water in the context of natural resource projects by offering services and expertise which enables more sustainable water management practices and improved overall project performance at reduced risks. BQE Water invests in innovation and has developed unique intellectual property through the commercialization of several new technologies at mine sites around the world for organizations including Glencore, Jiangxi Copper, Freeport-McMoRan and the US EPA. BQE Water is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BQE. Visit www.bqewater.com for more information.

The Toronto Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain information contained herein may not be based on historical fact and therefore constitutes "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. This includes without limitation statements containing the words "plan", "expect", "project", "estimate", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "may", "will" and other similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the Company's dependence on key personnel and contracts, uncertainty with respect to the profitability of the Company's technologies, competition, technology risk, the Company's ability to protect its intellectual property and proprietary information, fluctuations in commodity prices, currency risk, environmental regulation and the Company's ability to manage growth and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators at www.sedarplus.ca (including without limitation the factors described in the section entitled "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2024). Given these risks and uncertainties, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking information contained herein is based on management's current expectations and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such forward-looking information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

SOURCE BQE Water Inc.