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Lithium Australia NL (ASX: LIT) has moved up to 90% ownership interest in Envirostream Australia Pty Ltd, which is the only Australian company capable of retrieving and recycling all the energy metals from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The acquisition is highly complementary to and builds on LIT’s processing capacity as the latter is striving to develop an environmentally responsible framework for every Australian battery consumer.
A key component intrinsic to Lithium Australia’s mission to establish a circular battery economy is recycling of old LIBs to new while in the process ensure an ethical, sustainable and efficient supply of energy metals to the battery industry. Meanwhile, the Company continues to undertake further research and development on SiLeach® and LieNA®, both being its proprietary processes for the conversion of lithium silicates and unused fines from spodumene processing, to lithium chemicals. Recently, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) published 2 international patent applications for various aspects of the Company's LP precipitation and refining process.
Consequently, the plan is to produce advanced components for applications like stationary energy storage systems within Australia.
Based in Victoria, Australia, Envirostream operates the only plant to shred spent batteries and from them produce a mixed-metal dust (MMD) containing critical battery materials including cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese. As recently reported, Envirostream relocated is recycling facility from New Gisborne to Campbellfield during the December 2019 quarter, resulting in improved cost efficiencies.
Envirostream Business Model
Source: Company Reports
The MMD is currently exported to South Korea for refining. During the December 2019 quarter, Envirostream and South Korea-based battery recycler SungEel executed an offtake deal whereby the former will have exclusivity of MMD supply from Australia to SungEel. In the same period, Envirostream shipped the first lot of MMD from the relocated and upgraded plant to SungEel.
Read More: LIT’s December 2019 Quarter In Focus
Envirostream not only generates revenue through the sale of MMD but also through its battery collection services. Additionally, revenue is also derived from the sale of steel, aluminium, copper and plastics that are recovered as clean streams during the recycling process.
Stock Information: With a market capitalisation of AUD 35.93 million, the stock of Lithium Australia was trading higher at AUD 0.066, zooming up 3.125% on 6 February 2020 (AEDT 01:18 PM), eventually closing the trade at AUD 0.062 and ~ 2.15 million shares traded. Also, LIT has delivered impressive positive returns of 88.24% in the last three months, 25.49% in the last six months and 4.92% in the last one month.
