ABAT Shares Surge After US DOE Gives $144 Million Grant For Battery Recycling Facility

American Battery Technology Company ABAT shares surged on Monday after the company secured a $144 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The funds will go toward constructing a commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility.

This new facility, developed in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, is ABAT’s second. It will process approximately 100,000 tonnes of battery materials annually, including end-of-life and manufacturing scrap materials.

The project is expected to generate 1,200 construction jobs and 300 operational roles. The contracted grant award is set to begin on Jan. 1, 2025.

The output will include battery-grade nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium hydroxide for the North American market.

This second lithium-ion battery recycling facility is designed to scale its first facility by five times, employing internally developed processes for the strategic de-manufacturing and chemical extraction of battery-grade products.

ABAT has a strategic agreement with BASF, a leading cathode manufacturer, for the purchase of these battery-grade metals.

The company’s R&D, project management, and engineering teams, many of whom were part of Tesla’s Gigafactory design and engineering teams, have played a key role in scaling the commercialization of this facility.

In line with its strategy to build a commercial battery metals supply chain for North America, ABTC’s new facility will involve multiple partners, including BASF, Siemens, Clemson University, Argonne National Laboratory, and the South Carolina Electric Transportation Network.

American Battery Technology Company CEO Ryan Melsert said the grant contract from the U.S. DOE “will directly support the additional capacity required to process the quantity of materials demanded from the domestic automotive and battery industry,”  

This week, American Battery Technology entered the U.S. DOE’s Battery Workforce Challenge and introduced a new “Design for Recyclability” category for this three-year collegiate and vocational engineering competition.

Price Action: ABAT shares are up 24% at $1.069 at the last check Wednesday.

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