American Resources Corporation to build lithium ion battery and rare earth magnets recycling facility
source:proactiveinvestors
American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) announced that its subsidiary ReElement Technologies LLC has started engineering, planning and development work for its second lithium ion battery and rare earth magnet recycling and metal recovery facility, which will use its patented chromatography technology to produce 99.9% pure critical battery material and 99.5% rare earth elements.
American Resources CEO Mark Jensen said the ReElement division is poised for growth given the demand for domestically produced battery and magnet grade materials.
“With the recent passing of the Inflation Reduction Act and the rapid adoption of electric vehicles, the demand for such products is seeing rapid grow, and the versatility of our technology enables us to move quickly and cost effectively to provide a real solution,” Jensen said in a statement.
READ: American Resources Corp division partners with RecycleForce to process rare earth and battery element feedstocks
The company said it has narrowed the site selection for the 200,000-square-foot facility to one of two controlled properties. The first is in Noblesville, Indiana, which is approximately 40 acres of industrial-zoned land located less than five miles from its first commercial purification facility.
The second location is at a controlled property in West Virginia near the company's existing site for premium mid volume carbon processing and electrolysis technology, which will be deployed as part of the company's previously-announced tax-exempt bond issuance.
The facility's annual capacity is projected to exceed 95,000 tons of battery black mass or battery waste material (35,000 tons of high purity isolated battery elements) and 6,000 tons of rare earth magnet (2,000 tons of high purity isolated rare earth elements) processing capabilities by 2025, American Resources said.
As the market for end-of-life magnets and battery material feedstock expands, the facility can be expanded by adding additional magnet and battery purification capacity due to its modular design, it added.
“Given the minimal environmental and land footprint required of our process, we can efficiently expand our operations as the supply of end-of-life materials expands versus overbuilding and running inefficiently in the early years, but also expand rapidly in the out years as the market and feedstocks expand,” CEO Mark Jensen said.
The company is also in discussions about potential joint venture opportunities for co-located facilities in both the United States and Europe, he added.
American Resources said given its corporate structure, it will finance the project through non-dilutive sources at the ReElement level.
ReElement Technologies collects end of life magnets and batteries that are further processed into an aqueous-based solution to be separated and purified back to magnet and battery grade materials so they can be reused in the manufacturing of new batteries, magnets or other technologies.
American Resources is a next generation and socially responsible supplier of rare earth and critical elements, carbon and advanced carbon materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace.