Ann: Battery Recycling - First Commercial Plant Commissioned, page-65

UK listing to open doors for Neometals

Neometals now has direct access to European capital markets and The City of London after its shares commenced trading on the UK AIM market completing dual listing for the battery metal recycling company. In the immediate aftermath of the listing, that raised no additional capital, Neometals’ shares on the ASX traded from $1.20 prior to the listing to $1.48 at the close of trade Wednesday.

Neometals is pitching into the clean energy, battery metals and advanced materials space with its proprietary, green process technologies aiming to generate projects in the energy storage commodity markets.

The company ticked off a significant milestone in December last year when it commissioned its first commercial lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Hilchenbach, Germany with joint venture partner, engineering titan SMS Group. The AIM listing is another crucial step forward for the company in its European ambitions.

Full time operations in Germany are expected to get underway this quarter when the plant is expected to safely recycle up to 10 tonnes per day of battery-grade metal sulphate chemicals into new battery production.

Having a battery recycling asset in Germany, the heartland of European clean power production, will likely capture the interest of UK AIM investors given its geography and the worldwide appetite for green energy.

The latest development follows a number of other significant investment decisions in the past 12 months for Neometalswhich said the listing is intended to maximise liquidity and better capitalise on substantial UK and European investor interest in its role supporting sustainable battery value chains.

According to management it has a growing suite of sustainable downstream, recovery and recycling projects, supporting the global transition to more circular supply chains and cleaner energy.

Neometals Managing Director, Chris Reed, said: "We are delighted to commence trading on AIM. With this listing, we look forward to broadening our shareholder base by offering a differentiated investment opportunity and provide UK and European investors with a way to gain exposure to projects at the heart of recycling and decarbonising supply chains associated with the electric vehicle and energy storage sectors.

In another late 2021 announcement Neometals flagged an entry into the sizzling electric vehicle, or “EV” battery recycling market in North America after the 50:50 joint venture company it established with SMS Group, Primobius GmbH, rubber stamped an agreement to commercialise its recycling technology with Canadian steelmaking juggernaut Stelco Holdings. According to Neometals, the region is the fastest growing sector for lithium battery production.

The recycling plant can be expanded in scale and scope to include a sustainable hydrometallurgical refinery to recover and regenerate battery-grade metal sulphate chemicals for re-use in new battery production the company said.

In Portugal the company is commercialising a proprietary process to produce lithium hydroxide from lithium solutions using electrolysis. This is a more efficient method that avoids costly and carbon intensive reagents used in traditional chemical conversion.

Widening its focus into the City of London’s money markets ahead of major investment decisions could be seen a wise move for a company with significantly advanced European projects, especially those in the clean energy supply chain space.