Aqua Metals Selects Tahoe-Reno for Commercial Lithium Battery Recycling Campus

Commencing phased development this year to meet soaring demand for domestic supply of recycled metals essential to electric vehicles and energy storage

RENO, Nev., Jan. 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) (“Aqua Metals" or the “Company”), a pioneer in sustainable lithium battery recycling, today announced the completion of due diligence on a property in Tahoe-Reno, as well as plans to commence phased development of a five-acre recycling campus designed to process more than 20 million pounds of lithium-ion battery material each year with its innovative Li AquaRefining technology.

Nevada is the only U.S. state with companies across every facet of the lithium battery supply chain (mining, manufacturing, and recycling), and Aqua Metals is planning its state-of-the-art recycling campus in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) in the heart of the region’s growing battery ecosystem. Aqua Metals intends to design and develop the campus with the goal of sustainably recycling enough critical metals - like lithium hydroxide, nickel, copper, and cobalt - from spent lithium batteries to supply the raw materials for manufacturing 100,000 average EV battery packs every year.

The Company’s patent-pending Li AquaRefining technology is an innovative, closed-loop recycling system based on electroplating, producing high-purity metals with electricity instead of polluting furnaces or one-time-use chemical waste of other recycling approaches. Aqua Metals currently operates what it believes to be the first sustainable lithium battery recycling facility at its nearby Li AquaRefining pilot plant and plans to power the new commercial-scale campus using on-site renewable energy and purchase additional carbon-free energy to match its usage and overall carbon impact.

Aqua Metals phased campus vision for sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling, showing the existing building (Phase One, lower right) and planned future expansions

“Our campus vision is a testament to Aqua Metals’ commitment to the future of sustainable lithium battery recycling essential to meeting U.S. electrification and battery manufacturing ambitions in the coming decade," said Steve Cotton, President and CEO, Aqua Metals. “Our plans also represent a meaningful investment in clean energy jobs in the Nevada battery industry, as a leader in the effort to create a secure and sustainable domestic supply chain for the metals needed to power electric vehicles and build battery energy storage systems.”