REG - Neometals Ltd - Precious Metals Recovery Option Lapse

NeometalsAnnouncement

22/08/2024 07:01

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RNS Number : 4022B  Neometals Ltd  22 August 2024

This announcement contains inside information

 

22 August 2024

Neometals Ltd

("Neometals" or "the Company")

Precious Metals Recovery Option Lapse

Highlights

·      Neometals Ltd to allow lapse of option to acquire 80% of private
US company with proprietary

technology to recover precious metals from industrial waste.

·      Due Diligence has not provided sufficient confidence in technical
feasibility or economic viability of the technology at its current stage of
maturity.

Sustainable process technology developer, Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT & AIM:
NMT) ("Neometals" or "the Company"), announces its board has resolved to allow
the option to acquire an 80% equity interest in US business, Precious Metals
Recovery, LLC ("PMR") to expire on 31 August 2024. Pilot-scale metallurgical
test work has not sufficiently confirmed the technical feasibility or economic
viability of PMR's proprietary technology.

Neometals has been evaluating the acquisition of a majority stake in a
proprietary precious recovery

process ("PMR Technology") and associated processing plant ("PMR Pilot") that
targets recovery of

precious metals from industrial waste streams(( 1  (#_ftn1) )). The potential
acquisition of a controlling interest in the

PMR Technology and PMR Pilot is consistent with Neometals' focus on
commercialising processes that produce critical materials from recycling and
recovery from waste streams. The opportunity was pursued

for its potential to enable Neometals to generate short-term cashflow and
diversify its commodity and business model exposure from technology licensing
of battery materials processes.

Neometals has now concluded its technical and financial due diligence process,
which included running thirty +100kg-size batch trials through the PMR Pilot
and generating a preliminary cost estimation. Highly variable batch trial
results were not able to be definitively explained and operating costs were
higher than expected.

Neometals Managing Director Chris Reed said:

"Despite the PMR opportunity aligning with both our core competency in the
recovery of critical materials from high-value waste streams and our desire to
diversify into precious metals, our due diligence results have identified
risks that outweigh the potential rewards at the current stage of this
technology's maturity. We would like to thank our friends at PMR for the
opportunity and wish them every success in the continued development of their
technology."

Authorised by the Board of Neometals

- ENDS -

 

For more information, please contact:

 

 Neometals Ltd
 Chris Reed, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer       +61 8 9322 1182
 Jeremy McManus, General Manager - IP & IR                     +61 8 9322 1182

 Cavendish Capital Markets Ltd - NOMAD & Broker
 Neil McDonald                                                +44 (0)131 220 9771
 Peter Lynch                                                  +44 (0)131 220 9772
 Adam Rae                                                     +44 (0)131 220 9778

About Neometals

Neometals facilitates sustainable critical material supply chains and reduces
the environmental burden of traditional mining in the global transition to a
circular economy.

The Company is commercialising a portfolio of sustainable processing solutions
that recycle and recover critical materials from high-value waste streams.

·      Neometals' core focus is its patented, Lithium-ion Battery
("LiB") Recycling technology (50% NMT), being commercialised in a 50:50
incorporated JV (Primobius GmbH) with 150-year-old German plant builder, SMS
group GmbH. Primobius is supplying Mercedes-Benz a 2,500tpa recycling plant
and operates its own LiB Disposal Service in Germany. Primobius' first
21,000tpa commercial plant will be offered to Stelco under an existing
technology licence for North America.

Neometals is developing two advanced battery materials technologies for
commercialisation under low-risk, low-capex technology licensing business
models:

·      Lithium Chemicals (70% NMT) - Patented ELi™ electrolysis
process, co-owned 30% by Mineral Resources Ltd, to produce battery quality
lithium hydroxide from brine and/or hard-rock feedstocks at lowest quartile
operating costs. Pilot scale test work and Engineering Cost Study update
planned for completion in DecQ 2024; and

 

·   Vanadium Recovery (100% NMT) - Patent pending hydrometallurgical
process to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide from steelmaking by-product
("Slag") at lowest-quartile operating cost and carbon footprint.

 

For further information, visit: www.neometals.com.au
(https://www.neometals.com.au/) .

 1  (#_ftnref1) For full details refer to Neometals ASX announcement headlined
"Option to acquire Precious Metals Waste Recovery Process and Plant in US"
released on 27(th) May 2024.

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