Verde’s TerraZyme® Achieves Comparable Pavement Performance With 61% Less Cement in NCAT Study

Independent NCAT findings demonstrate comparable pavement performance under approximately 8 million equivalent single-axle loads, while eliminating lime treatment and substantially reducing conventional stabilizing materials, and significantly lowering embodied carbon emissions associated with pavement construction

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verde Resources, Inc. (OTCQB: VRDR) ("Verde" or the "Company"), an emerging leader in sustainable infrastructure technologies, today announced encouraging findings from the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University, demonstrating the potential of TerraZyme®, a proprietary enzyme-based soil stabilizer, to significantly reduce conventional stabilizing materials while maintaining comparable overall pavement performance under accelerated heavy-truck loading.

Presented during NCAT's September 2026 sponsor meeting, the findings evaluated Verde-sponsored Section S11, constructed in 2024 using TerraZyme®-based enzyme stabilization, against a conventional control section incorporating traditional cement- and lime-based stabilization.

Section S11 demonstrated overall pavement performance comparable to the conventional control section through approximately 8 million equivalent single-axle loads (ESALs), despite eliminating lime treatment from the subgrade and reducing base-layer cement content by approximately 61%. Both sections exhibited similar rutting performance, with no cracking reported during the evaluation period.

These findings mark an important technical milestone in Verde's efforts to advance commercially viable alternatives to conventional soil stabilization, particularly for infrastructure projects involving challenging soil conditions and significant material requirements.

Section S11 incorporated just 2% cement in its stabilized base, representing an approximately 61% reduction in cement content relative to the conventional control section. Additionally, S11 eliminated conventional lime treatment from the subgrade, instead utilizing TerraZyme® as part of its alternative stabilization approach.

The research also demonstrated the potential to make greater use of locally available soil materials. Section S11 successfully incorporated 25% A-6 clay into its stabilized base, demonstrating the potential to utilize existing soil resources and potentially reduce the need for imported aggregates or extensive soil replacement in suitable applications.

Despite these differences in material composition and stabilization approach, NCAT reported comparable overall pavement performance through approximately 8 million ESALs of accelerated truck loading. While the sections exhibited different structural responses, including higher measured horizontal tensile strain in S11, the findings provide encouraging evidence that TerraZyme®-based stabilization can reduce conventional material requirements while maintaining comparable observed pavement performance.

"For decades, conventional road construction has relied heavily on cement and lime to stabilize challenging soil conditions. These findings demonstrate that there may be a more material-efficient and lower carbon approach," said Eric Bava, Chief Operating Officer of Verde Resources. "Achieving comparable pavement performance under approximately 8 million ESALs while eliminating lime treatment and reducing base-layer cement usage by more than 60% represents a significant milestone for TerraZyme®. It also addresses a fundamental challenge facing the infrastructure industry: how to build durable roads while reducing material consumption, construction costs, and the carbon footprint of infrastructure development."

Independent Research Supports Alternative Soil Stabilization
NCAT's test track provides a controlled research environment where experimental pavement structures are subjected to repeated heavy-truck loading while researchers monitor structural responses, pavement deformation, and field performance.

The S11 research program was designed to evaluate whether enzyme-assisted stabilization could provide a practical alternative to conventional lime- and cement-treated pavement foundations. The findings indicated that, although the stabilized layers exhibited different stiffness characteristics, the asphalt concrete modulus was similar between the evaluated sections, and their overall field performance remained comparable through the evaluated traffic loading.

"The S11 research provides valuable field performance data on an alternative approach to pavement foundation stabilization," said Nathan Moore, Assistant Director for Test Track Research at NCAT. "What is particularly encouraging is that the enzyme-and-cement-stabilized section demonstrated overall pavement performance comparable to a conventional cement-and-lime-stabilized control section through approximately 8 million ESALs, despite differences in the structural responses of the stabilized layers. These findings contribute to our understanding of alternative stabilization methods and provide an important foundation for continued research and evaluation."

Expanding Opportunities Across the U.S. Infrastructure Market
The implications of these findings extend beyond NCAT's test track. Soil stabilization remains an essential component of road construction and rehabilitation, particularly in regions where expansive clay, weak subgrade materials, and challenging soil conditions require substantial chemical treatment or material replacement.

In its September 2026 presentation, NCAT specifically identified Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas among the states facing challenges associated with poor-quality base materials and expansive subgrade soils. Verde believes these conditions present meaningful opportunities to evaluate TerraZyme®-based stabilization as an alternative for road construction, rehabilitation, and other infrastructure applications.

By potentially reducing cement and lime requirements while enabling greater utilization of locally available soil materials, TerraZyme® could offer transportation agencies and infrastructure contractors opportunities to improve construction economics, reduce material transportation requirements, and lower the embodied carbon associated with conventional stabilization practices. These potential benefits remain subject to project-specific engineering validation, cost analysis, and environmental assessment.

"We see TerraZyme® as much more than a soil stabilization product. We see it as a technology with the potential to change how road foundations are engineered, particularly in regions where difficult soil conditions have historically required extensive treatment or material replacement," added Bava. "With these encouraging findings from NCAT, our focus is now on translating technical validation into commercial opportunities through engagement with state transportation agencies, engineering firms, and infrastructure contractors."

Advancing Commercialization and Field Applications
Verde intends to build upon the NCAT findings by pursuing additional field evaluations and pilot applications to assess TerraZyme®'s performance across different soil conditions, climates, and construction requirements.

The Company believes that demonstrating both engineering performance and economic competitiveness will be essential to broader adoption. Future evaluations are expected to focus on soil strength, durability, material efficiency, construction costs, and environmental impacts, providing transportation agencies and contractors with the technical information needed to assess TerraZyme® for their respective applications.

TerraZyme® also aligns with Verde's broader commercialization strategy of integrating sustainable materials and technologies into conventional infrastructure projects while maintaining the fundamental engineering requirements of roads and other transportation assets.

Alongside its engineered biochar applications for asphalt, TerraZyme® represents another component of Verde's strategy to develop a scalable sustainable infrastructure platform addressing both pavement foundations and surface materials.

"Our vision has always been to make sustainability an integral part of how infrastructure is built, rather than an added cost or consideration," concluded Bava. "The NCAT results demonstrate the potential of combining material efficiency with engineering performance. Our next priority is taking these findings beyond the test track and into practical, commercially viable applications. We believe TerraZyme® has the potential to create meaningful value for the infrastructure industry while advancing Verde's broader sustainable infrastructure strategy."

About Verde Resources, Inc.
Verde Resources, Inc. (OTCQB: VRDR) is an emerging leader in sustainable infrastructure technologies, focused on developing and commercializing engineered biochar solutions for asphalt, road construction, and other applications. Through strategic collaborations, advanced materials science, and independently verified environmental accounting, Verde is advancing its mission to help industries #TransitionToZero®.

Verde has partnered with Nature Plus, Inc. (NPI), the developer and manufacturer of TerraZyme®, to build on NPI’s 30 years of global experience in TerraZyme® -based soil stabilization. This collaboration aims to advance a hybrid technology with significant potential to reduce carbon emissions and construction costs while creating new opportunities for sustainable solutions in traditional road construction and maintenance.

For more information, visit www.verderesources.com.

About NCAT:
NCAT is a world leader in asphalt pavement technology, partnering with the National Asphalt Pavement Association, state transportation departments, the Federal Highway Administration, and industry stakeholders. Globally recognized for research, training, and technology transfer, it focuses on safe, sustainable, and cost-effective pavements.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release and statements of Verde’s management made in connection with the matters addressed by this press release contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Verde’s expectations, projections, and potential future developments. Statements attributed to Verde reflects its views as of the date hereof and are not intended as guarantees of future performance. All forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed or implied. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “project,” “seek,” “propose,” “intend,” “aim,” “goal,” “potential,” “explore” or derivations of such words or similar expressions regarding the future, although forward-looking statements may be denoted by other terms. In this press release, forward-looking statements include those related to Verde's product potential, commercialization strategy, commercial collaborations, future carbon removal credit generation and monetization, potential CORSIA-related opportunities, and anticipated market demand. These and other statements are based on current expectations and speak only as of the date of this release.

A non-exclusive list of risks and uncertainties that could cause the forward-looking statements herein to differ from future results includes, without limitation: (i) the risk that Verde will not be able to establish definitive licensing or other agreements for Verde or any revenue generating operations, (ii) the risk that Verde and its commercial partners will not be able validate Verde’s plans or gain market acceptance of their products and solutions, (iii) risks that biochar-modified paving materials may not achieve required regulatory or department of transportation approvals, and (iv) risks that field performance of engineered biochar products may differ from laboratory or test results. Other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include those contained in the Verde’s filings with the SEC, which can be accessed here.

Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained herein. Except as required by applicable law, Verde does not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether because of any new information, future events, changed circumstances, or otherwise.

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