Element One 2025 Year End Corporate Update

2025 was a critical year for Element One in which the Company created the corporate infrastructure, technical framework and exploration foundation to rapidly expand its hydrogen and critical mineral operations in 2026 and beyond.

Vancouver, December 31, 2025 - Element One Hydrogen and Critical Minerals Corp. (CSE: EONE) ("Element One" or the "Company") is pleased to provide the following 2025 Year End Corporate Update from its C.E.O., Brad Kitchen.

"As we close out 2025, I believe Element One Hydrogen and Critical Minerals Corp. is standing at the edge of a breakout moment-one that very few investors have yet recognized.

This year was about building quietly, deliberately, and intelligently. The result is a company with rare positioning: a true first mover in an emerging sector, natural (geologic) hydrogen, a market that could the global energy sector. In addition, Element One is on the forefront of critical mineral exploration and advanced extraction techniques. With that foundation now firmly in place, I believe 2026 will be a defining year for Element One and a potential inflection point for our valuation.

Natural hydrogen-sometimes called white or geologic hydrogen-is not manufactured. It occurs naturally in the Earth's crust and may be generated continuously by geological processes. If proven and scaled, it represents one of the most disruptive energy opportunities of our generation: clean hydrogen at dramatically lower cost than both fossil fuels and most green-hydrogen solutions.

One kilogram of hydrogen contains roughly the same energy as one gallon of gasoline. While gasoline currently costs approximately US$3.65 per gallon and green hydrogen can exceed US$7.00 per kilogram, natural hydrogen has the potential to be produced for as little as US$0.51-US$0.75 per kilogram. That is not incremental improvement-that is step-change economics.

While the natural hydrogen industry is in its infancy, 2025 saw major developments that Element One is following closely. During the premier natural hydrogen conference, H-NAT, held in Paris, France in November company representatives attended talks highlighting significant advances in natural hydrogen exploration including the first wells drilled in Canada, on going drilling in Australia and Kansas and the first successful test of stimulated hydrogen in Oman. Research in the sector is advancing as many countries across the glob recognize the potential of natural hydrogen. Element One is continuing to build on exploration and technological advances as well as seeking new partnerships to acquire and advance projects.

From a small-cap investor's perspective, Element One's structure is exceptionally compelling. We have only 36 million shares issued and outstanding, with approximately 80% owned by management and key long-term investors. This creates scarcity and leverage that few early-stage companies can match. Comparable public peers focused on natural hydrogen already trade at materially higher market capitalizations, despite much narrower strategies.

What truly separates Element One is that we are not a single-path story. We are active across three major forms of natural hydrogen-hard-rock stimulation and extraction, repurposing legacy oil and gas wells, and hydrogen accumulation systems with multiple potential sources-while also maintaining a portfolio of critical-minerals assets that provides additional upside and optionality.

Our team has done this before. In 2025, we strengthened management with the addition of Tim Johnson as C.O.O. and Allegra Hosford Scheirer as Chief Geological Consultant, aligning technical excellence with disciplined capital markets execution. Dr. Greeshma Gadikota, tenured professor at Columbia University, is our key researcher developing proprietary hard-rock hydrogen and critical mineral extraction technologies rooted in world-class science. Members of our leadership team have previously helped take a public company from a $3 million to a $100 million market capitalization in under a year, and played key roles in advancing assets that ultimately sold for $1.6 billion. We are applying that same disciplined, institutional approach here.

Late in 2025, we significantly upgraded our asset base with the acquisition of the HY Project and the Shulaps Project in British Columbia-ultramafic systems with geological conditions favorable for hydrogen generation and access to infrastructure. Our exploration model remains data-driven, capital-efficient, and partnership-oriented.

2026: Key Milestones and Value Catalysts

As we move into 2026, investors should watch for several potential catalysts that we believe could materially advance the Company:

• Progress across multiple hydrogen pathways, demonstrating the advantage of our diversified strategy

• Continued consolidation of critical-minerals optionality, strengthening our broader resource platform

• Advancement of hard-rock hydrogen extraction technology developed in partnership with lead researches in the industry.

• Initial revenue generation through our Union Bay joint venture, marking Element One's transition from concept to cash-flowing operations

• Technical validation and data updates from Alaska and British Columbia hydrogen projects, including HY and Shulaps

• Potential joint ventures or strategic partnerships designed to reduce capital risk while accelerating development

• Increased market awareness as natural hydrogen gains recognition as a viable clean-energy solution

Global decarbonization is accelerating across heavy industry, transportation, and energy systems. Hydrogen is expected to play a central role in that transition, and we believe cost-advantaged hydrogen supply is where real long-term value will be created.

As we enter 2026, Element One is tightly structured, heavily insider-owned, scientifically grounded, and positioned in what we believe could become a massive new energy market. Opportunities like this rarely remain undiscovered.

I want to thank our shareholders for being early and for believing in what we are building. We are focused, aligned, and ready for what comes next."

Brad Kitchen, C.E.O., Element One Hydrogen & Critical Minerals Corp.

About Geologic Hydrogen
Geologic hydrogen (also referred to as natural hydrogen) is generated through natural geochemical reactions within the Earth's crust, primarily from the interaction of iron-rich ultramafic rocks and water, as well as radiolysis and other catalytic subsurface processes. Unlike manufactured hydrogen derived from hydrocarbons or electrolysis, geologic hydrogen represents a naturally occurring primary energy resource with the potential to be produced at low cost with zero emissions. The discovery and development of geologic hydrogen reservoirs is an emerging frontier in global energy exploration, analogous to the early days of the oil and gas industry.

About Element One Hydrogen & Critical Minerals Corp.
Element One Hydrogen & Critical Minerals Corp. (CSE: EONE) is a Canadian company focused on the exploration, development, and commercialization of geologic hydrogen and critical mineral resources, as well as breakthrough hydrogen-generation technologies. The company's projects include the Foggy Mountain critical minerals project as well as projects in Alaska and British Columbia that are prospective for hydrogen production through stimulation in the subsurface as well as critical and battery metals.

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This press release contains "forward-looking information" that is based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements with respect exploration and development plans, as anticipated or at all. The words "will", "anticipated", "plans" or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking information.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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