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American Manganese boosts its pilot plant development with increased processing capacity

Last updated: 09:35 04 Sep 2020 EDT, First published: 07:35 04 Sep 2020 EDT

American Manganese Inc. -
An average lithium-ion battery scrap rate of 10% could result in as much as 64,000 tonnes lithium chemical, 96,000 tonnes graphite anode, 45,000 tonnes nickel, 18,000 tonnes cobalt, 22,000 tonnes manganese being recycled by 2025

American Manganese Inc (CVE:AMY) (OTCPINK:AMYZF) has unveiled further progress at its battery recycling pilot plant, saying it has increased its processing capacity by 356%.

The company is focused on recovering key metals, such as nickel and cobalt, from scrap cathode material rejected by battery manufacturers in a ground-breaking process, then selling it back into the market.

READ: American Manganese says lithium-ion battery recycling pilot plant gets engineering upgrades

The firm's research partner Kemetco has now further optimized the capacity of the plant's pre-leach stage from 160kg per day to 292 kg per day of lithium-ion battery cathode scrap material, American Manganese said.

The pre-leach stage is where the cathode active material in the battery, comprised of lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt, is separated from the aluminum foil.

The firm noted recent data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which underscores the amount of material that could be recovered from lithium batteries.

An average lithium-ion battery scrap rate of 10% could result in as much as 64,000 tonnes lithium chemical, 96,000 tonnes graphite anode, 45,000 tonnes nickel, 18,000 tonnes cobalt, 22,000 tonnes manganese being recycled by 2025, which would be equivalent to the entire lithium-ion battery market in 2017, highlighted the group.

"Optimization testing has been a beneficial learning curve and we are thrilled to announce a 356% increase in the pre-leach processing capacity of the pilot plant, which we can incorporate into the detailed engineering of our commercial plant design," Larry Reaugh, the CEO of American Manganese said in a statement.

As a result of these processing capacity upgrades, American Manganese and Kemetco will advance its pilot plant optimization testing by increasing the capacity of the subsequent leach circuit to balance the greatly increased capacity of the pre-leach stage, it added.

Shares in Toronto eased around 2% to stand at C$0.22 each.

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com

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