American Battery Metals Corporation, a lithium-ion battery recycling technology and advanced battery metal extraction company, entered into an agreement to secure 305 unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 6,100 acres of BLM land near Tonopah.
The company, which is in the process of changing its name to American Battery Technology Company, said the agreement is in the form of an exclusive exploration license through which ABTC has the sole authority to conduct its surveying, sampling, and proprietary extraction trials to characterize these resources and to quantify the performance of the lithium extraction and manufacturing operations.
Over the past two years, ABTC has been designing and optimizing its internally-developed processing train for the manufacturing of battery cathode grade lithium hydroxide from Nevada-based sedimentary claystone resources.
The majority of these development efforts have been performed with sedimentary claystone resource samples provided by partner companies in the Tonopah region, according to the documents.
While ABTC will continue to work with these partners to refine, test, and validate its internally developed technologies for potential commercialization at these resource sites, ABTC will also evaluate the performance of its lithium extraction and manufacturing technologies directly on its own lithium-bearing resource.
Preliminary evaluation of historical sampling and characterization efforts have indicated that the composition and structure of the resources on these claims are representative of resources identified on nearby claims in the same region, according to the documents.
In April 2020, American Lithium published a resource assessment of their 7,500 acre TLC project, which directly borders these ABTC secured claims, which stated a measured and indicated resource of 5.37 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, with an additional 1.76 million tonnes inferred.
“There is a well-known adage in the mining industry, that the best place to find a new mineral deposit is next to where there is an existing one,” said ABTC Chief Resource Officer Scott Jolcover.
“Our in-house technology development and commercialization efforts for the domestic manufacturing of battery cathode grade lithium hydroxide directly support U.S. federal efforts to reduce dependence on foreign sources of these critical materials that may not adhere to sufficient ethical and environmental standards for battery metals sourcing and manufacturing,” said ABTC CEO and CTO Ryan Melsert.
“The construction and commissioning of our lithium-ion battery recycling pilot facility remains our primary focus, however the magnitude of the entire battery recycling industry combined cannot meet the nearly insatiable near-term demand for these critical and strategic battery metals on its own. These recycling facilities must be supplemented by low-cost, low-environmental impact, and domestic primary battery metal manufacturing facilities in order to establish a truly secure closed-loop circular battery metals supply chain,” he said.
ABTC will begin the process of preparing and submitting a notice-level exploration permit application to the BLM, which includes environmental review and approval adhering to EPA’s National Environmental Protection Act requirements.
To support the company’s execution of its U.S. Department of Energy funded field demonstration grant project and this additional opportunity to expand its sedimentary claystone lithium resource exploration work, ABTC also recently closed on the purchase of a satellite office located in Tonopah.