American Battery Metals Corporation (OTCMKTS:ABML) executives said in a press release Tuesday that institutional investors are waking up to the reality that long-term lithium demand is going to dramatically increase and that the company is positioned to be a key US player.
The battery metal extraction and recycling company characterized 2019 investment in the sector as “hesitant and bearish” as a result of lithium supply currently outpacing demand. In 2020, though, CEO Doug Cole and others are seeing a change.
"The market is starting to realize that while there's enough lithium to meet today's short-term demand, overall demand will quadruple in this decade," CEO Doug Cole said in the statement. "The acute need for resources goes beyond simply developing new mining projects of critical materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Advanced extraction techniques are also required to shorten the time from the mining of such materials to them being deployed into the supply chain- and the process must also be environmentally-friendly and sustainable."
READ: American Battery Metals: US can balance need for critical mineral resources while protecting the environment
Doug Nickle, head of business development and government affairs, said American Battery Metals is in a unique position to thrive in the coming years.
“The renewable energy revolution necessitates a multifaceted, innovative approach,” Nickle said, calling for what he called a "green in, green out" transition process.
“It isn't really an environmentally sound energy transition if the mining and extraction of raw materials is bad for the environment and there isn't a sustainable plan to deal with the resulting e-waste created by lithium-ion battery systems," Nickle said.
That’s where American Battery Metals’ battery recycling comes in. Under its current program, the Nevada company takes in fully-charged lithium-ion batteries and extracts lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and aluminum to redeploy them for other uses in batteries.
The company is preparing to launch a scalable battery recycling plant in Nevada, which is expected to come online in late 2020.
"That's why American Battery Metals Corporation is unique,” Cole said. “We are the only fully integrated advanced technology energy company covering the beginning and end of life — and everything in between — for battery metals raw materials. We provide solutions for the market's upstream and downstream needs through our leading-edge lithium-ion recycling process, proprietary extraction technology, and resource production divisions."
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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