American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) revealed that the initial shipment of lithium ore feedstock has been funded and shipped as part of an overall offtake partnership with its South African business collaborators.
The Fishers, Indiana-based supplier of raw materials to the global infrastructure market, said it has started the shipment of lithium spodumene ores from Africa which will be refined to greater than 99.9% battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide using its patented ReElement Technologies refining process.
American Resources said the goal is to have US refining capacity, as well as large-scale capacity in Africa. “ReElement will develop initial processing capacity in the US with concurrent development of up to 80% of processing in local economies in Africa,” noted the firm.
The company is in site selection mode for its initial South African refining facility and said that it has also managed to narrow down its US-based site selection for lithium refining to the four US states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. The initial locations in the US are controlled by the company or its partners.
"This is an exciting moment as we can showcase our technology and broaden its impact on the world stage as a rapidly scalable and deployable technology for lithium and critical mineral refining to high purity, battery-grade material with an industry low capex requirement and environmental impact,” said American Resources CEO Mark Jensen.
“With our strong relationships throughout the African continent, our goal is to flip the narrative of exporting raw materials to importing high value technology to benefit the local economies though job creation and high taxable revenue.”
The company has an ambitious production blueprint.
“Our initial US processing capacity is being designed to handle 120,000 metric tons of lithium spodumene annually, producing approximately 15,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide monohydrate or carbonate," said Jensen.
Additionally, the US company is working with its partners on selecting a site next to a regional port for a South African refining facility to reduce shipping costs associated with transporting unrefined lithium ores, the carbon footprint and to create local jobs.
The facility will process lithium spodumene ores to yield ultra-pure, battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide, which can then be used as a commercial grade feedstock for either domestic battery manufacturers in the US or local battery production in the area.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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