Lahad Datu Refinery Resumes Operations

Graphene NanoChem plc

("Graphene NanoChem" or the "Group")

Lahad Datu Refinery Resumes Operations

Graphene NanoChem (AIM: GRPH), the performance nanochemicals and advanced materials company, is pleased to announce that Zurex Corporation Sdn Bhd, its wholly-owned subsidiary, has today resumed operations at its Lahad Datu refinery.

The 200,000 metric tonnes per annum palm oil refinery, which is situated at the Group's 14-acre site in the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster in Lahad Datu, Sabah, East Malaysia, converts crude palm oil into Refined Bleached and Deodorised Palm Oil ("RBDPO"), for both local and international customers.

The Lahad Datu refinery was successfully commissioned in June 2011 but due to a slump in the Malaysian palm oil refining industry, it was temporarily shut down in 2012. The Group's strategy for its performance chemicals business is to continuously invest in the production of high value chemicals and it intends to retrofit its proprietary nanotechnology to the Lahad Datu refinery in the medium term. In the interim, the Group will capitalize on opportunities to generate revenue from the refining industry, which has improved due to the change in the Malaysian tax regime.

The Group expects to operate the refinery on step-up basis, with initial production of 2,000 tonnes of RBDPO in October, with a contract for the offtake already in place.

Jespal Deol, Chief Executive Officer of Graphene NanoChem, commented: "We are delighted to announce the resumption of operations at the Lahad Datu palm oil refinery. Recommencing production of RBDPO will improve the Group's bottom line and enable each of the Group's assets to be self sustaining."

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