RecycLiCo Battery Materials Demonstration Plant Testing Achieves Over 99% Leach Extraction of Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, and Manganese from Lithium-ion Battery Production Scrap

SURREY, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 20, 2022 / American Manganese Inc (TSXV:AMY)(OTCQB:AMYZF)(FSE:2AM) ("Company"), doing business as RecycLiCo Battery Materials, a pioneer in advanced lithium-ion battery recycling and upcycling, and its R&D partner Kemetco Research Inc. ("Kemetco"), are pleased to announce that the leach section of its technology defining demonstration plant project has achieved over 99% extraction of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese from lithium-ion battery production scrap.

During the demonstration plant's leach stage testing, various operating parameters were investigated to determine the optimal conditions and collect data for ongoing commercial plant design and planning. Analysis of a range of leach data showed that the successful extraction results were achieved.

"I'm thrilled with the limits we have been able to push during this pivotal step of our demonstration plant project as it is core to our patented process and a limiting factor that defines the commercial design capacity," commented Zarko Meseldzija, CTO and Director of American Manganese. "The demonstration plant's growing number of achievements provides reliable technical data for third-party due diligence and checks many boxes regarding efficiency, capacity, and practicality that engages discussions regarding bespoke commercialization plans and influences successful commercial partnerships."

To date, the demonstration plant has leached a few metric tons worth of lithium-ion battery production scrap, the primary source of recyclable materials. The scrap material comes from losses in the battery cell manufacturing process due to incompliant quality. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, battery scrap will account for 78% of the pool of recyclable materials in 2025 and remain a significant recyclable source beyond 2030.

Mr. Meseldzija added, "Given the scrap's intrinsic value, it can be viewed as a resource instead of waste material, and the battery manufacturers will ultimately dictate the supply of their scrap steams. However, with the increasing value and shortage of battery materials, battery manufacturers have a stronger incentive to recycle in-house. Integrating our patented process alongside battery production scrap sources could enable battery manufacturers to build an internal closed-loop supply chain that recovers scrap materials and introduces upcycled material back into battery re-manufacturing."