Global Energy Metals Corporation, which is building a diversified global portfolio of exploration and growth-stage battery metals and mineral assets, announced that it struck a collaborative agreement with American Battery Metals Corporation (OTCQB:ABML) to expand the company’s scope by developing solutions to manufacture nickel and cobalt battery metals domestically in addition to its existing work on domestic lithium product manufacturing.
Reno, Nevada-based American Battery Metals is a lithium-ion battery recycling technology and advanced battery metal extraction company with mineral resources in Nevada. It is in the process of changing its name to American Battery Technology Company (ABTC).
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The collaboration will expand ABTC's scope by developing solutions to manufacture nickel and cobalt battery metals domestically in addition to its existing work on domestic lithium product manufacturing.
“Global Energy Metals will supply raw material from its Lovelock and Treasure Box projects in Nevada to undergo ABTC’s in-house procedure of developing new first-of-kind processes for producing battery cathode grade nickel and cobalt metal sulfates,” said the company.
As a part of the collaboration, the companies will evaluate opportunities that could secure "a stable supply of battery minerals critical for the electrification of vehicles and energy storage."
“We are truly excited to be collaborating with ABTC, given the shared vision both companies have in securing and building a North American supply of critical and strategic battery minerals while using technology to support the future of electrified transportation," Global Energy CEO Mitchell Smith said in a statement.
“The combination of ABTC’s leading-edge extraction technology development processes with Global Energy’s portfolio of nickel and cobalt projects creates mutually beneficial opportunities that could bolster and secure a much-needed supply of minerals deemed critical by the Canadian and US governments,” he added.
The ABTC team has developed new manufacturing processes for lithium-bearing resources.The firm’s analytical modeling, bench-scale empirical trials, and techno-economic analyses have resulted in ABTC’s current in-house process for manufacturing battery-grade lithium hydroxide from Nevada-based surface sedimentary lithium-bearing resources.This is currently being scaled up to a 5-metric-tonne per day field demo system through the support of a grant from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office Critical Materials program.
ABTC said it is “excited” to have forged the agreement with Global Energy in order to undergo a similar procedure of developing new processes for producing battery cathode grade nickel and cobalt metal sulfates from Nevada-based resources held by Global Energy.
“The partnership between ABTC and Global Energy Metals represents a complementary and actionable effort towards establishing a North American supply of critical and strategic materials that will fuel the global transition towards an electrified and domestic closed-loop circular economy,” said American Battery CEO and CTO Ryan Melsert.
“While our lithium-ion battery recycling facilities will be first to market and allow us to make an immediate impact on addressing these global challenges, by allocating the bench-scale resources now to also be developing processes for the production of battery-grade nickel and cobalt from primary materials we will be in the position to subsequently commercialize this additional set of technologies,” he added.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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