Filed by Global Partner Acquisition Corp II pursuant to
Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and deemed filed pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Subject Company: Global Partner Acquisition Corp II
Commission File No. 001-39875
The following article was made available by The Journal Record on January 11, 2024 in connection with a press release featuring Chief Executive
Officer of Stardust Power Inc. (Stardust), Roshan Pujari, where Mr. Pujari discussed Stardusts announcement that Stardust will build a refinery in Port Muskogee, Oklahoma.
$1.2B battery-grade lithium refinery coming to Muskogee
MUSKOGEE A lithium refiner that supplies the electric-vehicle industry announced Thursday that it has selected Muskogee as the future site for its
refinery.
Stardust Power Inc., a development-stage American manufacturer of lithium products, will develop a strategically central lithium refinery at
the Southside Industrial Park in Muskogee capable of producing up to 50,000 metric tons per annum of battery-grade lithium.
According to a release,
Stardust Power is expected to be eligible to receive up to $257 million in state and federal economic incentives for the facility build-out. The company may also be eligible for further federal grants and
or incentives offered by the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.
The total value of the economic incentive package will ultimately be
determined by Stardust Power achieving certain business milestones around job creation and local investment, including new machinery, equipment and manufacturing. The Oklahoma Department of Commerce performed an illustrative analysis of the
incentive package based on the companys inputs.
The companys founder and CEO Roshan Pujari currently lives in Connecticut, but he expressed
excitement Thursday to build the refinery in the state he grew up in. If it were online today, he said it would be the largest lithium refinery in the U.S. He estimates the total cost of the project at more than $1.2 billion.
Pujari said the domestic need for a refinery is strong as lithium is critical to the production of batteries for EV manufacturers and China currently controls
nearly 66% of the global lithium market and up to 8% of the lithium refinery market. He said China has increasingly threatened to cut off and place restrictions on exports.
In October, China announced a new set of export restrictions on certain graphite products. The mineral is used to make steel and batteries for electric
vehicles. Pujari told The Journal Record on Thursday its a national security priority for America to manufacture battery-grade lithium domestically.
In response to this need, the federal government has issued Inflation Reduction Act and Department of Energy grants and implemented the Advanced Technology
Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.
Pujari was unsure of the exact square footage of the project, but to fulfill the domestic need, the companys
strategy is to build a large centrally-located refinery. He said they selected Oklahoma for its logistics advantages, including strong rail connectivity and Port Muskogee being situated on the largest inland water system in the U.S.
In addition to the construction jobs the project will bring, he expects to create hundreds of jobs in the first phase once the facility is ready. Pujari said
another advantage of building the refinery in Oklahoma is the access to its highly-trained oil and gas workforce.
We are working hand in hand with
the oil and gas industry, Pujari said. A lot of people think about energy transition, and they think that we can get rid of oil and gas, but we are working with oil and gas to produce as feedstock for our refinery. Many producers have
produced water through their oil and gas production that we can source lithium from.