US Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Tours American Battery Technology Company Commercial Facilities

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Jun 21, 2024, 09:46 ET

RENO, Nev., June 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- American Battery Technology Company (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, hosted U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and members of her staff at its commercial lithium-ion battery recycling facility earlier this week. The tour follows American Battery Technology Company's (ABTC) recent announcement of its first successful manufacturing of lithium hydroxide from its first-of-kind, Nevada-based claystone integrated demonstration plant that was constructed with support from a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm addresses members of the American Battery Technology Company and tour guests at its commercial recycling facility and Nevada-based claystone integrated demonstration plant.

American Battery Technology Company CEO Ryan Melsert shows U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm battery metal products, including lithium, made from the company’s first-of-kind technologies utilized in its lithium ion battery recycling operations.

"I'm very proud of our team for constructing and commissioning ahead of schedule our multi-tonne per day demonstration system for the manufacturing of battery grade lithium hydroxide from our own Nevada-based sedimentary claystone resource," stated American Battery Technology Company CEO Ryan Melsert. "It was an especially proud moment to have Secretary Granholm come onsite to tour this demonstration facility, to review our progress on scaling this technology even further to our commercial scale refinery with support from an additional U.S. DOE grant, and to have so many of our strategic partners and stakeholders onsite to galvanize our path forward and align to establishing a true US closed-loop battery supply chain."

During the visit, Secretary Granholm toured ABTC's lithium hydroxide from claystone demonstration facility, its lithium-ion battery recycling plant, and met several ABTC strategic partners and stakeholder leaders who participated in the tour and events.

The tour started with ABTC's lithium hydroxide from claystone demonstration facility highlighting the company's integrated, first-of-kind process train specifically designed to access the lithium in these types of US-based unconventional resources to produce a low-cost and low environmental impact lithium hydroxide monohydrate product (LiOH) that meets the rigorous specifications for use in high energy density battery cathode manufacturing. While the U.S. does not hold large deposits of conventional lithium resources, such as hard rock ores and lithium-rich brines, it does have significant amounts of lithium held in unconventional deposits, such as sedimentary claystone resources. To date, attempts to produce battery-grade lithium products from these vast quantities of lithium-bearing unconventional sedimentary resources have utilized processes that were designed for conventional hard rock or brine-based resources, and as a result were not economically competitive.

With its demonstration facility now operational, ABTC is working to further evolve this technology by constructing a commercial-scale 30,000 tonnes lithium hydroxide per year refinery utilizing this system design directly at its Tonopah Flats Lithium Project, which has been identified as one of the largest lithium resources in the U.S. In October 2022, ABTC was selected for an additional competitively awarded $57.5 million grant from the U.S. DOE for a $115M project to support the construction of this commercial refinery. ABTC has engaged one of the premier global construction firms, Black & Veatch, for the engineering, procurement, and construction of this commercial-scale lithium hydroxide refinery.

After touring the LiOH pilot plant, the Secretary viewed the commercial lithium-ion battery recycling 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.

Several strategic partners and civic leaders joined the tour, including:

Tom Burns, Executive Director, Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development
Andrew Clinger, Vice President for Administration & Finance, University of Nevada, Reno
Jessica Diss, Northern Nevada Legislative Director, Office of Senator Cortez-Masto
Jon Dunham, AVP, Managing Director of Mining & Metals, Black & Veatch
Joni Eastley, Tonopah Main Street and Tonopah Town Board, Vice Chair
Mridul Gautam, Vice President of Innovation and Research, University of Nevada, Reno
Brady Hays, Sr. Vice President & Executive Managing Director, Energy Resources, Process Industries, Mining and Manufacturing, Black & Veatch
Benjamin Knudsen, Vice President Research, North America, BASF
Jackie Pierrott, VP of Government Affairs, Nevada Battery Coalition
Kristen Wahl, Director of Energy Justice and Workforce Readiness for Advanced Energy Technologies, Argonne National Laboratory

Bringing first-of-kind technologies to market, ABTC's battery recycling and primary battery metals commercialization efforts support the buildout of a domestically-sourced battery metals circular supply chain. ABTC has been selected for several competitive grant awards supporting the advancement and commercialization of its first-of-kind technologies for both recycling and primary LiOH manufacturing.

U.S. DOE Investments in ABTC Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

October 2021: ABTC was selected for a $2 million project from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) supported by funding from US DOE to support the recycling of battery packs and extraction of battery metals, with USABC cost share of $500 thousand.
November 2022: ABTC was selected for a $20 million project from the U.S. DOE to scale, optimize, and commercialize three next generation techniques to even further enhance the performance of the recycling train, with a federal cost share of $10 million.
March 2024: Awarded qualifying advanced energy project tax credits (48C) for $20 million for capital expenditures for battery recycling.
March 2024: Awarded qualifying advanced energy project tax credits (48C) for $40 million for the construction of a new commercial recycling facility.

U.S. DOE Investments in ABTC Lithium Hydroxide (LIOH) from Claystone Manufacturing

October 2021: ABTC was selected for a $4.5 million project from the U.S. DOE for the demonstration of battery-grade lithium hydroxide precursor production from Nevada claystone resources, with federal cost share of $2.27 million.
October 2022: ABTC was selected for a $115 million project from the U.S. DOE to construct a commercial-scale lithium hydroxide refinery, with a federal cost share of $57 million.

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; interpretations or reinterpretations of geologic information, unfavorable exploration results, inability to obtain permits required for future exploration, 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.

SOURCE American Battery Technology Company