American Manganese aims to create circular lithium-ion battery supply chain through its ground-breaking technology

Battery minerals are critical minerals Patent-protected process Clear route to commercialization What American Manganese does: American Manganese Inc (CVE:AMY) (OTCMKTS:AMYZF) is blazing a trail in recovering key metals from scrap cathode material rejected by battery manufacturers. The critical metals tech group is focused on recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles (EVs) and then selling the materials back to said firms. Due to the rapid upswing in electric vehicles (EVs), demand for lithium-ion batteries is growing exponentially and the raw material supply is struggling to keep up. Lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and aluminum are all used in battery production and the recoverable value for these metals is estimated to be as high as US$75.8 million per gigawatt of lithium cobalt batteries. Meanwhile, there is an increase in spent lithium-ion battery waste and no efficient method to recover the valuable cathode materials trapped inside. Existing methods are capital intensive and uses high heat (1,500℃), which comes along with harmful emissions, and low recovery and purity of cathode materials that are not repurposed into new batteries. The EV manufacturing industry's titan Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has announced that it is looking to “close the loop” on battery production by using recycled materials at its Gigafactory in Nevada, and Swedish competitor Northvolt is planning to build environmentally-friendly batteries by incorporating a recycling facility. American Manganese, based in Surrey, British Columbia, announced early in 2019 a significant milestone after being awarded a patent for its lithium-ion battery cathode material recycling technology called RecycLiCo. The technology is a breakthrough in recycling of lithium-ion batteries by providing a high extraction of cathode materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese at battery-grade purity. The process involves minimal steps, ensuring a high-grade, low-cost output. How is it doing: It's been a busy 12 months for AMY, now also listed on the OTCQB Venture Market in New York, as it steadily advances its technology. On April 9, the company announced that it had improved its manganese processing flowsheet following the recent research and development on the Wenden Stockpile reclamation and advanced material processing bench-scale project, which was funded by the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).  It said it expects the flowsheet enhancements to further improve process efficiencies and reduce capital costs of a potential future commercial operation, as recent metallurgical bench-scale studies that focused on solid-liquid separation demonstrated that the original flowsheet can be optimized. The company added that it achieved up to 99% extraction of manganese from the leach studies and determined optimal processing conditions. On March 12, 2021, American Manganese reported that it had awarded a C$2.7 million contract to partner Kemetco to build a 500 kilogram (kg) per day demonstration plant and also to construct a 5 tonne per day commercial recycling plant. The goal of the demonstration plant is to provide a tool for licensing or joint developing RecycLiCo with potential industry partners, and, armed with engineering data from that project, Kemetco will design the commercial version. The pair agreed to increase the initially planned commercial plant capacity to process battery cathode waste of five tonnes per day (t/d) from three t/d. Among the many achievements of the American Manganese-Kemetco collaboration in recent years has been test results achieving 99.7% extraction of lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt from the process and achieving 99.99% purity on recycled lithium-ion battery material. It has also tested various cathode chemistries including NCA, NMC, LCO, and LMO. Also in March, the company said it had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Italvolt SpA, Italy’s first battery Gigafactory and one of the largest in Europe, to develop a commercial recycling plant alongside its planned facility in Scarmagno, Italy. Italvolt is building the largest and greenest Gigafactory in Europe with a capacity of 45 GWh by 2024, potentially rising up to 70 GWh. The factory will be built at the iconic Olivetti factory in the heart of Europe's Motor Valley. In February 2021, AMY said it had appointed former Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) director for central Europe, Jochen Rudat, to its advisory board. Rudat spent 10 years working under Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, where he helped launch Models S, 3, X and Roadster in Europe. The company has welcomed new US President Joe Biden's executive order (EO) to strengthen critical supply chains, which specified "high-capacity batteries, including electric-vehicle batteries", as one of three key technology supply chains. There has also been progress on the company's Wenden Stockpile project in Arizona this year. The project site contains around 322,000 metric tons of low-grade manganese, bought by the US Government in the 1950s and 1960s, and is being funded by an award from the United States Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), to confirm the viability of efficient electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) production using American Manganese's recovery process. It has the potential to create a US domestic supply of manganese, for which the US has been 100% import-dependent since 1973. In February 2021, the firm said it had achieved positive manganese extraction results from the asset, after a series of bench-scale tests using AMY's patented process achieved up to 99% extraction of manganese. The company also recently boosted its patent portfolio after being awarded a South Korean patent for its RecycLiCo technology. The company has also filed National Phase Patent Applications for China, Japan, Europe, Australia, India, and Canada. Inflection points: Construction of demonstration and commercial plants Italy project developments and Wenden activity More deals and tie-ups What the boss says: In April's statement regarding its US Defense Logistics Agency project, American Manganese CEO Larry Reaugh said: “We continue to demonstrate our advanced manganese processing capabilities on low-grade manganese resources through our project with the DLA. Our work suggests that despite its low grade, the Wenden Stockpile may be a valuable manganese resource for the US, which is now 100% import-dependent for manganese in all forms." “It’s important that we maintain our methodical approach to enable an efficient and cost-effective flowsheet for treating Wenden Stockpile material to produce electrolytic manganese metal on a commercial scale,” Reaugh added. Contact the author at jon,hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com