BQE Water Integrates Aquatic Toxicology Services into its Core Competencies

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 12, 2025 /CNW/ - BQE Water Inc. (TSXV: BQE), a leader in the treatment and management of mine impacted waters, is pleased to announce that it is making a strategic investment into the integration of aquatic toxicology services into its existing business and suite of core competencies. This expansion is underpinned and made possible by a team of senior aquatic toxicologists including James Elphick, Dr Ebrahim (Ebi) Lari, and Josh Baker joining the BQE Water team. The investment includes the establishment of an aquatic toxicology laboratory as well as development of in-house resources to maintain BQE Water's leadership in the area of production of clean mine water.

The goal of this investment is to improve the services offered by BQE Water to its clients, specifically:

• To reduce timelines and costs associated with implementing remedies to toxicity occurring in mine waters by having a strong in-house multidisciplinary team capable of evaluating causes of toxicity, performing all required testing, and designing remedies.
• To consider establishment of science-based site-specific water quality benchmarks holistically, including costs and risks of water treatment to optimize water quality from early project stages.
• To be in a unique position to provide guarantees to clients with respect to effluent toxicity as part of plant operations services.    

David Kratochvil, the President and CEO of BQE Water, stated, "Over the last few years, we have identified aquatic toxicology services as an area of strategic interest for the Company. These services are not only perfectly complementary to our existing suite of services, but they also offer the potential for accelerated growth in our water treatment business. We are pleased to welcome top calibre aquatic toxicologists to help us expand and grow BQE Water while improving service offering to our clients."  

James Elphick commented, "Having spent 30 years performing applied research and testing to advance the science of aquatic toxicology and help clients gain an understanding of causes of toxicity and interaction of toxicants with water quality conditions, I am excited to have the opportunity to align this interest with a water solutions focused organization that partners with clients to deliver clean water production services. Approaching toxicity identification investigations and addressing gaps in the understanding of toxicant behaviour from a practical treatment perspective provides a unique service that will address ecological risks and reduce timelines for implementing the right remedies. While the plan is for the new BQE Water's toxicity testing laboratory to be fully accredited, the primary purpose of the laboratory is to support the Company's water treatment business and focus on investigative type of work rather than building a capacity for processing a high volume of samples for routine bioassays."

About the Team of Senior Aquatic Toxicologists
James Elphick, Dr. Ebi Lari and Josh Baker bring substantial experience in the field of aquatic toxicology and understanding of causes of toxicity in mine water, including having been instrumental in developing water quality benchmarks for contaminants of concern at mine sites, such as selenium, nickel, copper, sulphate, chloride, nitrate, ammonia, and in researching novel approaches to understanding interactions of toxicants with water quality conditions.

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 risk. 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.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or 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.

For further information please contact: BQE Water Inc., Suite 200 - 30 East 6th Avenue, Vancouver, BC Canada V5T 1J4, 604 685 1243; David Kratochvil, President & CEO, [email protected]; Heman Wong, CFO, [email protected]; Peter Gleeson, Executive Chairman, [email protected]