Press release
American Battery Technology Company Announces Commissioning of First-of-Kind Facility for Manufacturing of Battery Grade Lithium Hydroxide from Nevada Claystone Deposit
Pilot plant produces qualification samples for strategic customers and demonstrates commercial maturity of internally-developed production process RENO, Nev.,
About this update from American Battery Technology Company
[{"type":"text","content":"Pilot plant produces qualification samples for strategic customers and demonstrates commercial maturity of internally-developed production process\nRENO, Nev., April 22, 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, announced the completion of construction and start of commissioning of its lithium hydroxide (LiOH) pilot plant marking a significant milestone in the commercialization of its internally-developed processes to access an unrealized domestic primary lithium resource.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\"We're excited to have completed construction of this first-of-kind pilot demonstration system,\" stated ABTC CEO Ryan Melsert. \"We have already generated thousands of liters of lithium solution from our claystone feedstock material demonstrating our selective lithium liberation technologies.\"\nThe construction and commissioning of this pilot plant enables ABTC to demonstrate its technologies for accessing the lithium housed in its unconventional resource, Tonopah Lithium Flats Project, in an integrated and continuous system, and to generate large amounts of battery grade lithium hydroxide for delivery to customers for qualifications and evaluation. The construction and operation of this pilot demonstration plant are supported by a competitively awarded grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for this $4.5M effort.\nTesting and validation of the lithium hydroxide from the hundreds of tonnes of claystone material processed at this plant will be performed by prospective customers such as automotive OEMs, battery manufacturers, and cathode manufacturers. Over a dozen prospective strategic customers have already toured this pilot facility in recent months, and ABTC is currently evaluating opportunities for the long-term offtake of its battery grade lithium hydroxide.\nLithium products are generally manufactured from conventional resources, which include hard rock spodumene materials primarily from western Australia and lithium-rich brines primarily from South America, however the U.S. does not have large quantities of these developed conventional resources. In order to significantly increase U.S. produc...