Aqua Metals Stock

Aqua Metals, Inc. (Aqua Metals) engages in the business of recycling metals through a novel, proprietary and patent-pending process that it developed and named ‘AquaRefining’.

During the first half of 2022, the company announced its ability to recover copper, lithium hydroxide, nickel, and cobalt from lithium-ion battery black mass at the company’s Innovation Center. During 2022, the company built its fully-integrated pilot system, located within the company’s Innovation Center, which is designed to allow Aqua Metals to be the first company in North America to recycle battery minerals from black mass, sell them in the U.S. and position the company as the first lithium-ion battery (LiB) recycler in North America to align with the U.S. government’s intention of retaining strategic battery minerals within the domestic supply chain.

During 2022, the company conducted environmental comparisons based on Argonne National Lab’s modeling of lithium battery supply chains – called EverBatt. The initial results indicate that AquaRefining is a cleaner approach to LiB recycling, producing far less CO2 waste streams than smelting or chemical driven hydrometallurgical processes on the market. In December 2022, the company completed equipment installation and began to operate its first-of-a-kind LiB recycling facility, utilizing electricity to recycle instead of intensive chemical processes, fossil fuels, or high-temperature furnaces. In January of 2023, Aqua Metals recovered its first metals from recycling lithium batteries using the patent-pending Li AquaRefining process, and is scaling operations at the company’s pilot facility.

In February 2023, the company acquired a five-acre recycling campus at Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC). The facility is designed, when fully developed, to process up to 10,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material each year using the company’s proprietary AquaRefining technology. The company expects to complete development of phase one, including all equipment installation, by the end of 2023 and to commence operations at the new campus in the first quarter of 2024.

Aqua Metals is seeking to reinvent metal recycling with its patented and patent-pending AquaRefining technologies. Aqua Metals is focused on developing cleaner and safer metals recycling through innovation. The company’s Innovation Center can expand the development of breakthrough technologies for sustainable metal recycling and deliver high-value critical minerals back into the manufacturing supply chain while reducing emissions and toxic byproducts and creating much safer work environments.

AquaRefining is a low-temperature, water-based process. Aqua Metals has invested in breakthrough metals recycling methodologies that are environmentally responsible, economically competitive, and will help retain critical strategic metals within the U.S. while lowering reliance on unsafe and toxic mining operations. Aqua Metals has developed breakthrough metal recycling technologies that utilize a clean, closed-loop process that can produce ultra-high purity metals. AquaRefining is designed to deliver raw materials back into the manufacturing supply chain, and replaces the need for polluting furnaces and hazardous chemicals with electricity-powered electroplating to recover valuable metals and materials from spent batteries with higher purity, lower emissions, and minimal waste.

Aqua Metals has demonstrated this technology in lead acid battery recycling and is scaling operations for its lithium-ion battery recycling pilot facility. AquaRefining for lead uses a bio-degradable aqueous solvent and a novel ambient temperature electro-chemical process to produce lead suitable for use in new battery production. The company’s AquaRefining process produces lead with a purity of 99.996+%, making it the purest lead ever made from a recycling technique that is in fact purer than lead made from mining processes.

The company is in the process of demonstrating that Li AquaRefining (which is also electricity-based and fundamentally non-polluting) can create the highest quality and highest yields of recovered minerals from lithium-ion batteries, with lower waste streams and lower costs than alternatives.

The company is also exploring additional novel applications of AquaRefining across metals recycling industries at its Innovation Center, including recycling emerging battery chemistries and opportunities to develop additional products for sale to customer specifications.

AquaRefining Process

The company developed AquaRefining to be a cleaner and modular alternative to smelting. The company’s process has two key elements, both of which are integral to its issued patents and pending-patent applications. The first is the company’s use of proprietary, non-toxic solvents that dissolves metal compounds. The second is a proprietary electro-chemical process and the company’s modular Aqualyzer cells that selectively target each critical element and converts the dissolved metal compounds into high purity metals and/or salts.

The AquaRefining process begins with the processing of crushed used batteries either in the form of paste (for LAB) or, black mass (for LIB). The active materials are first processed to remove sulfur and then dissolved in the company’s solvent. Metals are plated from the solvent using the company’s patented and patent-pending process allowing the solvent to be reused.

The company has demonstrated at bench scale and begun to demonstrate in its pilot facility that its lithium battery AquaRefining process can generate cobalt, lithium hydroxide, copper, nickel, and manganese dioxide from lithium-ion battery black mass. The company has also developed an integrated software and portal called PureMetrics that keeps track of production and key operating metrics.

Markets

Aqua Metals’ AquaRefining process produces high purity metals and alloys that can be returned into the battery manufacturing supply chain or sold into metals markets for use across industries.

Business Model

Aqua Metals is engaged in the business of applying its commercialized clean, water-based recycling technology principles to develop the clean recycling solutions for both lead and lithium-ion (Li) batteries. The company’s recycling process is a patented hydro- and electrometallurgical technology that is a novel, proprietary and patented process it developed and named AquaRefining. AquaRefining is a low-emissions, closed-loop recycling technology that replaces polluting furnaces and hazardous chemicals with electricity-powered electroplating to recover valuable metals and materials from spent batteries with higher purity, lower emissions, and with minimal waste. The Aqualyzers cleanly generate ultra-pure metal one atom at a time, closing the sustainability loop for the rapidly growing energy storage economy.

The company’s process was originally designed for lead recycling. The company’s suite of patented and patent pending AquaRefining technologies will allow the lead-acid battery industry to simultaneously improve the environmental impact of lead recycling and scale recycling production to meet demand. Furthermore, the company’s AquaRefining technologies result in high purity lead. The company offers technology licensing and related services to lead recyclers across the globe for lead recycling.

The company is also applying its commercialized clean, water-based recycling technology principles with the intention of developing the cleanest recycling solution for lithium-ion batteries.

The company’s business strategy is based on the pursuit of building and operating Li AquaRefining recycling capacity to meet the growing demand for critical metals in lithium-ion batteries driven by innovations in automobile batteries, growth in internet data centers, and alternative energy applications, including solar, wind, and grid-scale storage. The company is also continuing to pursue equipment supply and licensing opportunities within the lead acid battery recycling marketplace.

The company is in the process of demonstrating that Li AquaRefining, which is fundamentally non-polluting, can create the highest quality and highest yields of recovered minerals from lithium-ion batteries with lower waste streams and lower costs than existing alternatives. The company has already demonstrated at its pilot facility its ability to recover key valuable minerals in lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium hydroxide, copper, nickel, cobalt, and other compounds in 2022. The company has installed, commissioned, and began to operate the first Li AquaRefining pilot plant at the end of 2022, scaling towards a commercial demonstration operation through 2023.

The company’s focus for the lead market is providing equipment and licensing of its lead acid battery recycling technologies in an enabler model which allows it to work with anyone in the industry globally and address the entire marketplace. The company’s focus for the lithium market includes operating its first-of-a-kind lithium battery recycling facility, utilizing electricity to recycle instead of intensive chemical processes, fossil fuels, or high-temperature furnaces. The company is also exploring partnership and/or joint venture agreements, particularly as its Li AquaRefining matures through 2023 and into 2024.

Intellectual Property Rights

Patent Portfolio

The company has secured 9 U.S. patents, 91 international patents, and 2 allowances (international). In addition to the U.S. patents, it has international patents/allowances in the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, African Intellectual Property Organization, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the Eurasian Patent Organization, European Union, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. The company also has 50 U.S. and foreign patent applications pending with patent applications pending in 21 additional non-U.S. jurisdictions across ten distinct patent applications relating to certain elements of the technology underlying its AquaRefining process and related apparatus and chemical formulations.

Trademark Portfolio

The company has filed for trademark registration in the U.S. and foreign countries for the following trademarks: AQUA METALS (U.S. and 14 foreign countries); AQUAREFINING (U.S. and 10 foreign countries); AQMS (U.S. only); AQUAFIT (U.S. only); and AQUAREFINERY (9 foreign countries).

History

Aqua Metals, Inc. was founded in 2014. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 2014.