ReElement achieves next purity milestone

Setting the bar for battery materials, American Resources Corp.'s ReElement Technologies announced that it has achieved an ultra-high purity of 99.96% battery-grade lithium carbonate from its unique technology developed in partnership with Purdue University.

American Resources is a next-generation and socially responsible supplier of raw materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace. Utilizing its patented multi-modal chromatography technology, developed in partnership with Purdue University, ReElement Technologies emerged from the research to begin its stream of highly refined battery materials to the parched supply chain.

With growing attention on the fragile supplies of battery materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, ReElement has focused its expertise on the separation and purification of these elements from several sources, including end-of-life batteries of varying chemistries such as nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP); black mass produced by third parties; battery manufacturing waste and scrap; and spodumene lithium ore.

The company's latest achievement comes from the successful purification of the hard rock lithium source, spodumene, showcasing its technology's ability to provide industry-best purity results across various feedstock, both primary and recycled.

"Refining lithium from natural sources, such as spodumene, in a cost effective and environmentally sensitive manner is key to the near-term domestic battery industry," said American Resources CEO Mark Jensen. "We realize the importance of sustainability and circularity which has been a big focus of our critical mineral refining platform. Given our technology's efficient attributes, we are also highly focused on the rapidly accelerating demands of the electrified economy."

Chromatography is an important biophysical technique that enables the separation, identification, and purification of a mixture for qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Generally used for most scientific pursuits to discern components or aspects of a solution, the chromatography utilized by ReElement is unique in that it can be efficiently and continuously used in a closed-loop, is column-based, and is a modular system that can operate through multiple stages to recover high-value components – essentially an auto-chemist.

Another added benefit is chromatography produces very little waste, making it environmentally friendly and much easier to permit relative to conventional refining methods.

This milestone of refining hard rock lithium ore to high purity, battery-grade lithium products follows the company's success in refining end-of-life and waste feedstocks back to battery and magnet-grade qualities which include a greater than 99.5% pure rare earth elements (neodymium-praseodymium and dysprosium), representing a first in commercial scale success in the U.S.; a greater than 99.9% lithium from recycled NMC lithium-ion batteries; and nearly 100% at 99.99% ultra-purity lithium from LFP (lithium iron phosphate) lithium-ion battery manufacturing waste.

With a battery material refining lineup that practically covers most of the bases and at such incredibly high purities, ReElement has prepared for any angle.

"Our innovative platform can efficiently and cost effectively address the complex demands of our critical mineral supply chains through the refining of natural occurring ores while also creating a sustainable and circular life cycle," added Jensen. "We applaud our technical and operational teams for exceeding our initial target results in producing ultra-high pure, battery-grade lithium from spodumene utilizing our revolutionary and patented technology. The results we have achieved and the scalability we have showcased is paramount for the high-growth battery industry. Our technology is unique in that we can operate standalone facilities, co-locate within the battery manufacturing and mining ecosystems to produce ultra-high pure lithium in either a carbonate or hydroxide form, and at a substantially lower economic and environmental cost than conventional chemical processing and refining."