American Manganese up on battery recycling news
American Manganese Inc. [AMY-TSXV; AMYZF-OTC] said Tuesday March 23 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Italvolt SpA, Italy’s first battery Gigafactory and one of the largest in Europe to develop a commercial recycling plant.
The plant will utilize American Manganese’s RecycLico Patented Process, a company innovation for recycling cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries.
The companies said the plant will be built alongside Italvolt’s planned Gigafactory in Scarmagno, Italy. The two companies have agreed to work collaboratively to recycle waste lithium-ion battery cathode material using the patented RecycLiCo process.
American Manganese shares advanced on the news, rising 12% or $0.19 to $1.77 on volume of 865,020. The shares are trading in a 52-week range of $2.86 and 10.5 cents.
American Manganese and Italvolt believe the MOU is a strategic response to the European Commission’s proposed Batteries Regulation on December 10, 2020. The Batteries Regulation initiative is part of the new Circular Economy Action Plan which aims to ensure that batteries placed in the EU market are sustainable and safe throughout the entire life cycle.
This means batteries that are produced with the lowest possible environmental impact, which includes high recycling rates of valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
“We have already initiated the engineering process in order to integrate the recycling plant within the Gigafactory,” said Italvolt founder and CEO Lars Carlstrom. “Using the ground-breaking circular technology that they have developed is a big step forward that will allow Italvolt to produce the greenest batteries in the world,” Carlstrom said.
“Italvolt is a next generation Gigafactory that aims to promote competitive sustainability in Europe by addressing the social, economic and environmental issues related to lithium-ion batteries,” said American Manganese President and CEO Larry Reaugh.
American Manganese is moving to establish itself as a pioneer in the advanced lithium-ion battery recycling market. With the aid of its RecycLiCo Patented Process, the company aims to promote a circular economy for the lithium-ion battery supply chain and set the standard for high recovery and purity of cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries.
The company hopes to capitalize on the expected electric vehicle revolution through being able to take EV batteries, convert them into cathode materials of high purity that can go directly back into a battery. The suite of cathode materials includes lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese and aluminum.