American Battery Technology Company announced the completion of construction and start of commissioning of its lithium hydroxide (LiOH) pilot plant marking a significant milestone in the commercialization of its internally-developed processes to access an unrealized domestic primary lithium resource. The construction and commissioning of this pilot plant enables ABTC to demonstrate its technologies for accessing the lithium housed in its unconventional resource, Tonopah Lithium Flats Project, in an integrated and continuous system, and to generate large amounts of battery grade lithium hydroxide for delivery to customers for qualifications and evaluation. The construction and operation of this pilot demonstration plant are supported by a competitively awarded grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for this $4.5 million effort.

Testing and validation of the lithium hydroxide from the hundreds of tonnes of claystone material processed at this plant will be performed by prospective customers such as automotive OEMs, battery manufacturers, and cathode manufacturers. Over a dozen prospective strategic customers have already toured this pilot facility in recent months, and ABTC is currently evaluating opportunities for the long-term offtake of its battery grade lithium hydroxide. ABTC plans to further evolve this technology by constructing a commercial-scale 30,000 tonnes lithium hydroxide per year refinery utilizing this system design directly at its TFLP property.

Concurrently, the company is also commercializing its first-of-kind technologies for its battery recycling operations and has successfully manufactured a large inventory of recycled battery metal products at its commercial-scale recycling facility in Storey County, Nevada.