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American Manganese buys specialized reactor from Asia to make cathode material as it bids to optimize its battery re-cycling process

Last updated: 13:07 06 Nov 2020 EST, First published: 08:48 06 Nov 2020 EST

American Manganese Inc. -
The pilot plant recycles spent lithium-ion batteries to produce cathode metals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and aluminum at high purity, which can then be put back into the battery manufacturing process

American Manganese Inc (CVE:AMY) (OTCPINK:AMYZF) (FRA:2AM) has boosted its battery recycling pilot project by purchasing from an Asia supplier, a specialized reactor to make cathode material. 

Cathodes are, of course, vital to battery manufacturing and this reactor is capable of producing the most modern cathode precursors such as lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) and lithium cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA), the company said in a statement. 

READ: American Manganese says US government looks to Wenden national defense stockpile to end reliance on China for critical minerals

Such a reactor is not available from North American suppliers and will be integrated into the final stages of the firm's ground-breaking RecycLiCo pilot plant project. 

Put simply, the firm's technology recycles spent lithium-ion batteries to produce cathode metals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and aluminum at high purity, which can then be put back into the battery manufacturing process. 

"Cathode production from raw materials to cathodes is a highly specialized and energy-demanding process but is also a substantial value-added step," said Larry Reaugh, CEO of American Manganese, on Friday.

"Therefore, we believe by optimizing the RecycLiCo process to produce recycled cathode materials for seamless integration into battery manufacturing is more efficient and beneficial for our business strategy."

American Manganese also noted the benefits of more modern technologies, versus current methods of recycling, which involve high heat smelting (using fossil fuels) of spent batteries or metal concentrates from spent batteries, producing around two tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per ton of material process.

Additionally, only a portion of the base metals is recovered as crude materials that require a large number of processes such as conversion, leaching, solvent extraction, electrorefining to make separate LME value metal products.

American Manganese said it had been actively advancing its cathode recycling technology, with respect to continued operations of its pilot plant to grow capacity and bidding to achieve the high-value chain with a low number of processing steps, it said.

The company said it will be producing cathode precursors samples that have been requested by a Tier 1 battery manufacturer.

Shares in Toronto nudged up 2.6% to C$0.20 each.

---Updates for share price---

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com

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