- Accomplishing a major commercialization milestone, the
company continues to aggressively advance recycling operations to
increase battery metals manufacturing for U.S.-based strategic
customers
- Achievement marks capabilities of the company's
internally-developed, first-of-kind, commercial-scale battery
recycling technologies for recovery of battery materials with high
yields, low cost, and a low environmental footprint
- Spurred by U.S. Department of Energy grant awards
and recent 48C tax credit awards, the facility is on-track for
introducing IRA-compliant and responsibly-sourced, battery grade
metals into the North American supply chain in support of
diminishing reliance on imported materials from Foreign Entities of
Concern (FEOC)
RENO,
Nev., May 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- American
Battery Technology Company (ABTC) (NASDAQ: ABAT), an
integrated critical battery materials company that is
commercializing its technologies for both primary battery minerals
manufacturing and secondary minerals lithium-ion battery recycling,
has achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating a fixed
duration operation of its commercial-scale lithium-ion
battery recycling facility at a steady-state throughput of greater
than 115% of its maximum design rate. At full production capacity,
this facility was initially designed to nominally process 20,000
metric tonnes per year of battery feedstock, and surpassing this
design rate demonstrates the impact of the continued process
enhancements that have been implemented in the commissioning of the
facility.
"One of the key advantages of commercializing an
internally-developed technology is that the team members have a
fundamental understanding of every unit operation within the
processing train. This allows them to be constantly evaluating the
data and operating conditions from the facility in real-time and
continuously enhancing the operations, both through incremental
day-to-day as well as step-change disruptive improvements," stated
ABTC CEO Ryan Melsert. "We're
incredibly proud of this team who have taken ownership of the
success of this facility as we move to 24/7 operations."
The ABTC recycling facility utilizes a first-of-kind integrated
set of recycling processes based on a strategic de-manufacturing
approach that utilizes a deconstruction process combined with a
targeted selective hydrometallurgical process. This system is
agnostic to feedstock form factors and can process lithium-ion
batteries and manufacturing scrap of a variety of sizes and shapes,
and with a wide range of internal chemistries. The first phase of
the recycling process produces recycled products that includes
copper, aluminum, steel, a lithium intermediate, and a black mass
intermediate material, and the integrated second phase further
refines these materials into battery grade nickel sulfate, cobalt
sulfate, manganese sulfate, and lithium hydroxide.
"Having in-house expertise is critical to our continued success
and ability to rapidly advance our operations, and I am extremely
proud of the tenacity, creativity, and collaboration demonstrated
by our team every day," said ABTC COO Andrés Meza. "Pushing this
volume of material through a fully customized, large-scale, complex
system is no easy feat, and I am extremely pleased with how
smoothly the system is performing overall. Our reliability
improvements are paying dividends, and we are now laser-focused on
sustainable rate improvements, further operational expenditure
reductions, and cost efficiencies through automation."
The company is already in the process of implementing the second
phase of this integrated recycling facility, where the lithium
intermediate from its first phase process will be further refined
into a battery grade lithium hydroxide product, and the black mass
intermediate material will be further refined into battery grade
nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium hydroxide products.
The company's battery recycling technologies utilized at this
recycling facility were developed in-house by the ABTC R&D,
engineering, and technical projects team members, many of whom were
previously members of the founding Tesla Gigafactory design and
engineering teams. These ABTC team members have significant
experience scaling processes and bringing first-of-kind
commercial-scale facilities online and have leveraged this
expertise to de-risk ABTC's commercialization of its battery
recycling facility. The teams work symbiotically to drive the
development and implementation of ABTC's first-of-kind technologies
and commercial-scale facilities for domestic critical battery
material manufacturing.
ABTC has been validating and optimizing its first-of-kind
recycling technologies for several years, and has showcased its
innovation through winning the battery recycling portion of the
competitively awarded BASF-sponsored Circularity Challenge;
through a battery recycling grant from the U.S.
Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), which is comprised of the U.S.
Department of Energy, General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis for a
commercial-scale project currently underway to demonstrate that
recycled battery metal products from domestic U.S. resources can be
produced at lower cost than, and at significantly improved social
and environmental impact, than conventionally mined virgin
minerals; and through a competitive U.S. DOE grant for a
project to develop and commercialize a set of Next Generation
battery recycling technologies to even further enhance the
recovery of recycled products and reduce the cost of
operations.
Additionally, the company has recently been selected for two
competitively awarded tax credits totaling over $60 million through the Qualifying Advanced
Energy Project Credits program (48C) for the reimbursement of
capital expenses at its current Nevada recycling facility, to support the
capital expenditures for the second phase processes at this
facility, and to support the construction of a significantly larger
additional battery recycling facility to process material from new
strategic suppliers.
About American Battery Technology Company
American Battery Technology Company (ABTC), headquartered in
Reno, Nevada, has pioneered
first-of-kind technologies to unlock domestically manufactured and
recycled battery metals critically needed to help meet the
significant demand from the electric vehicle, stationary storage,
and consumer electronics industries. Committed to a circular
supply chain for battery metals, ABTC works to continually innovate
and master new battery metals technologies that power a global
transition to electrification and the future of sustainable
energy.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other
than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking
statements." Although the American Battery Technology Company's
(the "Company") management believes that such forward-looking
statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such
expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking
statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could
cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those
anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among
others, risks and uncertainties related to the Company's ability to
continue as a going concern; inability to obtain permits required
for development or production, general economic conditions and
conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates;
the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals;
fluctuating mineral and commodity prices, final investment approval
and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms
or at all. Additional information regarding the factors that may
cause actual results to differ materially from these
forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June
30, 2023. The Company assumes no obligation to update any of
the information contained or referenced in this press
release.
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SOURCE American Battery Technology Company