Aqua Metals Announces Intention to Sell McCarran, Nevada Plant as Part of Its Non-Core Asset Disposition and AquaRefining Licensing Strategy

Company Accepting Bids for Land and Building Through December 11, 2020

MCCARRAN, Nev., Sept. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) (“Aqua Metals” or the “Company”), which is reinventing lead recycling with its AquaRefining technology, announced today that as part of its accelerated equipment supply and licensing strategy, which includes the disposition of non-core assets, the Company has officially placed its novel lead acid battery recycling plant for sale. The Company built and then operated the demonstration plant commercially through 2019 and successfully manufactured over 35,000 ingots of ultrapure AquaRefined lead. The Company believes it has achieved the demonstration purposes of the plant, resulting in the successful validation of AquaRefining technology and commercial sale of ultrapure lead. As stated previously, and as part of its long-term business strategy, the Company now plans to monetize this non-core asset with the sale of the plant as a means of financing the Company’s continued acceleration of its core business of becoming an equipment supplier and licensor of AquaRefining technologies.

The Company intends to market the land and building as a general use industrial facility. Residing on 11.5 acres, the 136,000 square foot plant contains 14,000 square feet of operational office space. The facility also includes three exterior dock doors with seven exterior grade level doors, 13,000 amps of total building power and a temperature-controlled warehouse with negative or positive pressure.

The Company has also initiated a separate effort to sell certain non-core lead recycling equipment into the secondary market for used equipment. The Company believes the land, building and non-core equipment may have a strong attraction as a fully-integrated package for any buyer looking to engage in lead recycling activities. The Company expects to apply the cash proceeds from the sale of the plant to further strengthen its balance sheet. The Company believes the sale proceeds, potential future insurance collections (total policy of $50M for equipment losses from the November, 2019 fire) and the $20.3M in insurance collected to date will be sufficient to fully fund the AquaRefining licensing business strategy as the Company transitions towards scalable revenues.