American Battery Technology Company (OTCQB:ABML) (ABTC) said it has welcomed York Smith as its new director of research and development.
Bringing over 15 years of research and development experience, the company said Smith has an extensive background in applied sciences in chemical engineering and sustainable technology process development, with specific focuses on extractive metallurgy, electrochemistry, and non-ferrous metal recycling.
He has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Utah's Materials Science and Engineering Department for the past six years, where he recently was awarded the distinguished honor of serving as part of the Henry Krumb Lecturer Series issued by the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, & Exploration for his work focused on "Lithium: Resources, Recovery, and Recycling."
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While at the University of Utah, he led a team of interdisciplinary researchers developing innovative and sustainable technologies for lithium extraction from primary and secondary resources including recycling technologies. Recently, a team he led composed of members from the University of Utah, Cornell University, and UC Riverside was selected as Phase I finalists in the national competition "American-Made Challenges: Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize," hosted by the US Department of Energy.
"Much of my prior research has focused on solving some of the fundamental challenges related to materials processing and sustainability," Smith said in a statement. "One of the many things that attracted me to this new role with ABTC is the commitment of the company in developing scientifically sound, environmentally low-impact technologies vital for materials critical to electric vehicles and a sustainable future."
In his new role, Smith will oversee the ABTC team of scientists at the company's Research Development Center at the University of Nevada Reno's Nevada Center for Applied Research (NCAR) and within the cleantech incubator Greentown Labs.
The ABTC technology team supports continued work on their US Advanced Battery Consortium and Department of Energy-funded collaboration with strategic partners BASF and C4V to demonstrate that battery grade metals nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium hydroxide can be manufactured from recycled materials at lower cost, lower environmental impact, and with higher domestic US-sourced content than conventional virgin sourced metals.
As well, Smith and the technology team continue to drive the company's efforts to design and optimize its internally developed processing train for the manufacturing of battery cathode grade lithium hydroxide from Nevada-based sedimentary claystone resources as part of Tonopah Flats Lithium Exploration Project which is supported by its recently awarded grant from the DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office in partnership with DuPont (NYSE:DD).
He will also support the continued construction of ABTC's Global Development Center, which will include onsite analytical and process laboratories, along with pilot bays for validating next-generation technologies, and will be housed in their pre-commercial lithium-ion battery recycling plant once completed.
ABTC CEO Ryan Melsert added: "The experience and leadership that York brings to our research and development team will further strengthen and expand the maturation and commercialization of our battery metals extraction technologies supporting our continued and diligent focus on our growth strategies to address these global challenges at scale."
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