American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) has announced that its wholly-owned ReElement Technologies LLC subsidiary has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Continental Lithium to begin trial shipments of lithium spodumene ore to ReElement Technologies' Noblesville, Indiana facility.
The facility will refine the lithium spodumene ore into high-purity (99.9%-plus) lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide using the company's patented and revolutionary multi-mode chromatography technology.
The socially-responsible supplier of rare earth and critical elements, carbon and advanced carbon materials said post-initial material testing, the parties intend to work towards jointly developing a ReElement lithium refinement facility in Nigeria to locally process and purify lithium spodumene.
“The value of our technology, given in part to its low capex, modular scalability, and low environmental footprint, is the ability to locally build and process material in a manner that is safe for the environment and population,” American Resources Corp CEO Mark Jensen said in a statement.
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American Resources noted that the initial trials will consist of 28 metric ton increments of 5% to 8% grade lithium spodumene concentrate that is produced at Continental Lithium's Nigerian mines and shipped to Noblesville, Indiana to be processed through ReElement's facility to a 99.9% or greater, ultra-high pure lithium carbonate.
“Africa is a very resource-rich community, but very few of these resources, especially critical minerals and metals processed to the high-grade purity needed in battery and magnet production, are actually processed locally, resulting in the loss of high-value jobs that could otherwise be kept within Africa,” Jensen added.
He noted that ReElement will sell the purified lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide into the domestic battery manufacturing marketplace.
As well, American Resources said the MOU outlines the supply of spodumene as well as the steps of jointly building and operating a ReElement Technologies lithium refining facility in Africa that is centrally located around Continental Lithium's spodumene mines, which will result in reduced transportation costs, creation of high-quality jobs, and reduction in the environmental footprint of the lithium production life cycle.
The lithium refined at the facility will be solid either locally or into the US domestic battery industry, according to the company.
American Resources is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market.
Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com