Dear Valued Shareholders,
On behalf of the team at
While this led to immediate announcements of hundreds of new and existing vehicle factories being devoted to the manufacturing of electric vehicles, and of hundreds of new battery cell factories being constructed globally, unfortunately this momentum did not carry over to significantly grow the manufacturing capacity of the upstream battery metals and their refineries needed in order to supply this wave of new demand. As such, we are in a position where the committed demand for these battery metals (lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper) from the electric vehicle and battery cell factories already under construction is far greater than the global capacity of all battery metal manufacturing facilities combined. This is further exacerbated by the fact that these vehicle and cell factories can be brought online in as quick as one year from initial groundbreaking, whereas the development of new primary mineral resource projects typically requires greater than five years. These global phenomena are creating an immense imbalance of supply and demand, resulting in extreme pricing and market disruptions, that is projected to exist for decades to come.
As the lithium-ion battery industry undergoes a generational transformation, over the past few months we as a company have also had the opportunity to reflect on our core strengths and values and redefine our path forward. Especially in an industry that is so often plagued by promotional and aspirational claims and promises, it is important to clearly define our mission and identify our principles. At ABTC, we are a technology development and commercialization company, specializing in the design and evolution of first-of-kind low-cost and low environmental impact technologies within the battery metals and refining industry through the development stages of 1) conceptual design, 2) rigorous analytical modeling and empirical bench validations, 3) integrated demonstration and piloting, and 4) commercialization.
While there are many companies that construct and operate multiple large commercial facilities with mature processing train flowsheets, it is in the design, development, and optimization of innovative and unconventional processes where ABTC focuses. We as a team have the rare combination of skill sets and experiences to balance physics-based first-principles analytical modeling to define the workspace, with physical bench chemistry and fabrication of integrated systems to validate the operations, and economic and lifecycle impact modeling to assess the competitiveness of the technologies within the market.
Over the past two years, we have been able to complete the analytical modeling and empirical validations portion of the design cycle for our lithium-ion battery recycling technologies, and have progressed to the integrated demonstration and piloting stage. We are excited to now be constructing our first pre-commercial integrated facility to be able to operate these systems in a continuous and economically competitive fashion. This facility is designed to produce nearly every component needed to manufacture a new lithium-ion battery cell, and to demonstrate the true closed loop environment enabled by the operations of this recycling facility. Over the past several months, we purchased a greenfield site in
One step up the staged development pipeline, currently at the analytical modeling and bench scale validations stage, we have also been developing a first-of-kind set of technologies for the economically competitive and low environmental impact manufacturing of battery grade lithium hydroxide from surface sedimentary resources located in Central Nevada. These lithium bearing resources have been deemed unconventional to date, with conventional processing trains not able to extract, purify, and manufacture battery grade products in an economically competitive fashion. However, throughout the past year, the ABTC team and its partners have been developing a first-of-kind set of technologies specifically tailored for this unique resource, and validating these operations at the bench scale. We have been fortunate enough to have recently won a competitive grant from the
Even one more step further up the development pipeline, at the conceptual design stage, we have been trialing new processes for the economically competitive and low environmental impact manufacturing of nickel and cobalt products from
It is through the implementation of this physics-based stage-gate design and development process that we are able to evolve our conceptual designs through each stage to commercialization, and also to stay true to our principles and stay conscious of who we are and what we value.
Corporate Relationships: How we succeed
While it is critically important for us to understand who we are as an individual company, as the lithium-ion battery industry moves from the conventional linear supply chain to a closed-loop circular model, it is unlikely that any company will successfully persist to represent only a single portion of this supply chain. The relationships amongst the companies in each sector of the supply chain are becoming increasingly important, with complex interactions where many times a company is both the supplier of a feedstock and the customer of a product.
We are proud of the relationships we have been able to build with corporations in neighboring sections of the closed-loop chain, and we prioritize fostering and growing these relationships. This began with our selection as the winner of the battery recycling Circularity Challenge hosted by BASF, Stanley Black & Decker, and facilitated by
Then, through our bench scale development efforts of our first-of-kind selective lithium extraction technologies from
By working with the
In addition to working with large corporations, we have been evaluating several opportunities for investments into, or acquisitions of, startup companies within various sectors of this closed-loop supply chain. Each of these startups have highly promising synergistic technologies at the R&D stage, and through our first-principles based stage-gate design and development process we can work together to rapidly and efficiently evolve these promising and enabling technologies through to commercialization.
Regardless of the sizes of the companies, there are many synergies and cost reductions that exist by removing the barriers between what are currently siloed sections of this manufacturing supply chain and moving towards an integrated continuous set of operations. Whether they be large mature incumbents or startup new entrants, the companies that ultimately succeed in this space will be those that can effectively foster relationships and integrate each portion of this supply chain to build a unified network.
Corporate Governance: How we ensure all decisions are made in your best interests
As a rapidly growing company, there have been times when our progress outpaced the maturity of our procedures. As such, over the past several months we have instituted many processes to both aid our fast growth and to ensure it is done in a sustainable manner. The establishment of these best practices, including the hiring of our new COO, helps to ensure that every company decision is made in accordance with our principles and reflects who we are.
As announced in August, our founder-stage board members will not be running for re-election, allowing us the opportunity to build a new well-balanced board of directors in alignment with our corporate mission. This is an effort I take very seriously, and over the past four months we have been able to interview more than 30 prospective candidates for these board seats. The majority of these candidates are current or former executives or board members at the automotive OEMs, at global chemical companies, at institutional investment and/or ESG-based firms, are former members of federal or state governments, or are industry experts in key fields of research. While I have always felt our company mission and position in the industry are compelling, it is still inspiring that after hearing our technology roadmap and business plans effectively every one of these candidates has accepted our offer to be considered for a seat.
The nominations of our board members are too important to be decided by a single individual, so we have hired a third-party board services firm to perform a vetting process, including conflicts of interest and background checks, on each of the downselected candidates. Once these final candidates are vetted and nominated, the full dossiers prepared for each nominated board member will be sent to all shareholders as part of the announcement of our annual shareholders meeting, at which each nominated candidate will be voted upon by the shareholders.
We have hired a separate third-party firm to host and manage the voting for the annual shareholder meeting, and the date of this meeting will be announced once the board candidate vetting processes are complete. While this is a time-consuming process, the establishment of our new board of directors is a critical factor in driving company success and ensuring proper corporate governance.
It has been just over four months since I was appointed the CEO of ABTC, and I still wake up each morning humbled by the confidence you have placed in me, awestruck by the opportunity at our fingertips, and steadfast to help drive this company to its goals.
Thank you for your support as we continue our evolution together, and a prosperous 2022 to us all,
CEO / CTO / Director
American Battery Technology Company
About
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the
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Media Contact:
tmoehring@batterymetals.com
720-254-1556
Source:Tiffiany Moehring American Battery Technology Company 720-254-1556 tmoehring@batterymetals.com
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