Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) (“Aqua Metals" or the “Company”),
a pioneer in sustainable lithium battery recycling, today announced
the completion of due diligence on a property in Tahoe-Reno, as
well as plans to commence phased development of a five-acre
recycling campus designed to process more than 20 million pounds of
lithium-ion battery material each year with its innovative Li
AquaRefining™ technology.
Nevada is the only U.S. state with companies
across every facet of the lithium battery supply chain (mining,
manufacturing, and recycling), and Aqua Metals is planning its
state-of-the-art recycling campus in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial
Center (TRIC) in the heart of the region’s growing battery
ecosystem. Aqua Metals intends to design and develop the campus
with the goal of sustainably recycling enough critical metals -
like lithium hydroxide, nickel, copper, and cobalt - from spent
lithium batteries to supply the raw materials for manufacturing
100,000 average EV battery packs every year.
The Company’s patent-pending Li AquaRefining™
technology is an innovative, closed-loop recycling system based on
electroplating, producing high-purity metals with electricity
instead of polluting furnaces or one-time-use chemical waste of
other recycling approaches. Aqua Metals currently operates what it
believes to be the first sustainable lithium battery recycling
facility at its nearby Li AquaRefining pilot plant and plans to
power the new commercial-scale campus using on-site renewable
energy and purchase additional carbon-free energy to match its
usage and overall carbon impact.
Aqua Metals phased campus vision for sustainable
lithium-ion battery recycling, showing the existing building (Phase
One, lower right) and planned future expansions
“Our campus vision is a testament to Aqua
Metals’ commitment to the future of sustainable lithium battery
recycling essential to meeting U.S. electrification and battery
manufacturing ambitions in the coming decade," said Steve Cotton,
President and CEO, Aqua Metals. “Our plans also represent a
meaningful investment in clean energy jobs in the Nevada battery
industry, as a leader in the effort to create a secure and
sustainable domestic supply chain for the metals needed to power
electric vehicles and build battery energy storage systems.”
Aqua Metals has entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire the five-acre site and expects to complete the
purchase of the new campus, including an existing building, next
month subject to customary closing conditions and Aqua Metals’
receipt of the necessary financing with which to finance the
purchase. The Company’s initial plans call for upgrading the
current building to install a commercial-scale Li AquaRefining
system capable of recycling 3,000 tons of lithium battery ‘black
mass’ each year. The Company expects to complete redevelopment of
the current space and finalize equipment installation this year,
and to commence operations at the new campus in the first quarter
of 2024.
Aqua Metals intends to fund the purchase of the
new property with a non-dilutive loan and has entered into a
non-binding letter of intent with a mortgage lender that Aqua
Metals has worked with in the past to acquire the necessary
financing for the property purchase.
Aqua Metals also intends to finance the
development of Phase One through a non-dilutive loan. The Company
is currently in discussions with a provider of debt financing that
has provided financing in the past.
“We believe our phased campus will enable us to
scale cost-effectively as we acquire new customers and build new
partnerships. We expect that Phase One will process 3,000 MT of
black mass per year at full capacity -- 30 times that of our
current pilot operation -- resulting in significant revenue for the
company,” continued Mr. Cotton.
In Phase Two, subject to the successful
operation of the first lithium battery recycling facility, Aqua
Metals expects to build a second lithium battery recycling facility
at the property with capacity to process an additional 6,000 tons
of lithium black mass per year. In this phase, the company also
anticipates building additional space for enhanced research and
development into sustainable recycling innovations and processing
novel lithium battery chemistries to further expand the
capabilities of the clean metals recycling campus.
“With our new campus, we are taking what we’ve
already learned from building and operating our successful Li
AquaRefining pilot facility and scaling it at the right pace,” said
Ben Taecker, Aqua Metals' Chief Engineering and Operating Officer.
“With on-site clean energy, and our ground-breaking Lithium
AquaRefining technology, we believe this will be the cleanest and
safest lithium battery recycling facility in the world.”
About Aqua MetalsAqua Metals,
Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) is reinventing metals recycling with its
patented AquaRefining™ technology. The company is pioneering a
sustainable recycling solution for materials strategic to energy
storage and electric vehicle manufacturing supply chains.
AquaRefining™ is a low-emissions, closed-loop recycling technology
that replaces polluting furnaces and hazardous chemicals with
electricity-powered electroplating to recover valuable metals and
materials from spent batteries with higher purity, lower emissions,
and minimal waste. Aqua Metals is based in Reno, NV and operates
the first sustainable lithium battery recycling facility at the
company’s Innovation Center in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial
Center.
To learn more, please visit
www.aquametals.com
Aqua Metals Social MediaAqua
Metals has used, and intends to continue using, its investor
relations website (https://ir.aquametals.com), in addition to
its Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts
at https://twitter.com/AquaMetalsInc (@AquaMetalsInc), https://www.linkedin.com/company/aqua-metals-limited
and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvxKNWcB69K0t7e337uQ8nQ
respectively, as means of disclosing material non-public
information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under
Regulation FD.
Safe HarborThis press release
contains forward-looking statements concerning Aqua Metals, Inc.
Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our
plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements
that contain words such as "expects," "contemplates,"
"anticipates," "plans," "intends," "believes", "estimates",
"potential" and variations of such words or similar expressions
that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes, or that
do not relate to historical matters. The forward-looking statements
in this press release include our expectations for our pilot
recycling plant, our ability to recycle lithium-ion batteries and
the expected benefits of recycling lithium-ion batteries. Those
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially. Among those factors are: (1) the risk that we
may not be able to acquire the funding necessary to acquire the
five-acre campus; (2) the risk that we may not be able to close on
our acquisition of the five acre campus; (3)the risk that we may
not be able to develop the recycling facility on the five-acre
campus within the expected time or at all; (4) even if we are able
to develop the recycling facility, the risk that we may not realize
the expected benefits;(5) the risk that we may be unable to
successfully recycle other valuable metals in addition to copper
from lithium black mass using our AquaRefining technology; (6) the
risk that licensees may refuse or be slow to adopt our AquaRefining
process as an alternative to smelting in spite of the perceived
benefits of AquaRefining; (7) the risk that we may not realize the
expected economic benefits from any licenses we may enter into; (8)
the risk that we may not be able to access additional capital,
through the sale of our TRIC facilities and equipment or otherwise,
as and when needed and (9) those other risks disclosed in the
section "Risk Factors" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K
filed on February 24, 2022. Aqua Metals cautions readers not to
place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company
does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligation to
update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or
unanticipated events as they occur, except as required by law.
Contact Information:
Investor RelationsContact:
Robert Meyers, FNK IR646-878-9204aqms@fnkir.com
MediaContact: Ariane Wolff,
Warner Communications978-729-3542ariane@warnerpr.com
Source: Aqua Metals
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5cb491ea-5ecc-4410-834d-b9c8965e2184
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