Chris Reed

Neometals is edging closer to demerging its significant Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in Western Australia into a new company, Widgie Nickel, which is targeting a September listing on the ASX. Existing Neometals shareholders are set to get a free piece of Widgie proportionate to their current shareholdings. A new board of directors has now been appointed for Widgie.

ASX-listed minerals technology player Neometals has hailed its latest vanadium recovery pilot plant test work a resounding success. The Perth-based company says the scaled-up pilot trials produced a consistently higher than 99.5 per cent-purity vanadium pentoxide product from the processing of about 14 tonnes of vanadium-bearing steel making by-product, with average recoveries exceeding 75 per cent.

ASX-listed Neometals’ and its joint venture partner, mega German engineering firm, SMS Group have made the decision to fund a commercial scale lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Germany. The partners joint venture vehicle, Primobius GmbH intends to expand its demonstration plant in Germany and build up operational capacity to provide a 10 tonne per day battery disposal recycling service by early 2022.

Minerals technology group Neometals’ joint venture partner Critical Metals has struck a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Swedish company H2 Green Steel that may open the door to a possible second vanadium recovery project for the partners. The collaboration with H2 Green Steel complements the existing agreement between Neometals and Critical Metals in relation to their proposed vanadium recovery plant in Finland.

ASX-listed Neometals and its joint venture partner, mega German engineering firm, SMS Group, have successfully completed commissioning of their showcase lithium-ion battery recycling demonstration plant. All leaching, purification and recovery circuits of the “Stage 2” hydrometallurgical refinery have now been successfully wet commissioned. The plant trial on electric vehicle batteries will commence as scheduled in early November.

Neometals’ 70 per cent owned subsidiary company, Reed Advanced Materials has entered a co-operation agreement with Portugal’s largest chemical producer, Bondalti Chemicals seeking to commercialise Reed’s “ELi” processing technology for the sustainable production of battery quality lithium hydroxide and carbonate. The collaborators aim to construct a pilot plant ahead of a proposed 25,000 tonne per annum industrial scale lithium refinery in Portugal.

After three years of R&D development, including bench and pilot trials, feasibility studies and engineering investigations, Neometals and its joint venture partner, engineering colossus SMS Group, have successfully commissioned its first commercial lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Hilchenbach, Germany with operations to start early next year. The plant will process up 10 tonnes per day of battery-grade metal sulphate chemicals safely recycled into new battery production.

ASX-listed Neometals is on course to enter the sizzling electric vehicle, or “EV” battery recycling market in North America after its joint venture company, 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.

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 has joined forces with a subsidiary of luxury vehicle juggernaut, Mercedes-Benz to design and construct a proposed lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Southern Germany. The collaboration will see Primobius, a joint venture partner of Neometals, team up with the car manufacturer’s subsidiary, LICULAR GmbH. According to the company, the pair are in ‘advanced discussions’ for the 2,500 tonne per annum plant.

With numerous businesses reporting inflationary and rising operating costs, emerging battery metals producer Neometals has released highly encouraging engineering numbers for its proposed vanadium pentoxide recovery plant in Finland that potentially puts it in the lowest operating cost category. The company is planning a joint venture to recover the high-purity metal oxide from by-product slag created during the steel making process.

Neometals’ joint venture offspring Primobius has finalised an internal engineering cost study for a first stage shredding plant of a potential 50tpd integrated lithium-ion battery recycling operation on a greenfields site in Germany. In a European first, the new design will cater to electric vehicle car makers by integrating the processing of larger units arising from end-of-life electric vehicles in addition to cell production scrap.

ASX-listed Neometals is one step closer to negotiating a binding offtake agreement with potential Chinese partner Jiuxing Titanium Materials after the success of an industrial-scale smelting trial in Western Australia. The emerging battery metal producer received encouraging results from its production of titanium dioxide chloride slag at a grade of more than 90 per cent using mixed gravity concentrate from its Barrambie titanium and vanadium project near Sandstone.

ASX-listed Neometals has completed pre-feasibility study for production of titanium and iron-vanadium concentrate at its wholly owned Barrambie titanium and vanadium project near Sandstone, Western Australia. Results from the study confirm the viability of commercialising the project with the potential to supply in excess of 500,000 tonnes per annum of high-quality supply constrained ilmenite in the first 10 years of the project.

Battery metals producer Neometals has put pen to paper to bring global engineering firm and joint venture partner SMS Group onboard with a 50 per cent stake in its battery recycling IP to accelerate commercialisation of its lithium-ion battery recycling technology.

Neometals has forged links with a subsidiary of Australian Vanadium Limited to potentially establish a shared vanadium- titanium processing hub in West Australia’s Mid West region. The non-binding term sheet also allows the affiliate company the option to purchase and treat concentrate derived from Neometals’ massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium project near Sandstone in WA.

Neometals has executed a slew of agreements to secure the company 50 per cent ownership of joint venture company Recycling Industries Scandinavia AB to develop the first Finnish vanadium recovery project. The balance of RISAB equity is held by unlisted Australian mineral development company Critical Metals whilst Neometals holds approximately 19 per cent of Critical’s issued capital.

ASX-listed Neometals’ latest feasibility study into its Vanadium Recovery Project in Finland has shown a significant increase to the operation’s net present value compared to its preliminary investigations. The latest figures show a 40 per cent increase to pre-tax net present value up to $US323 million compared to $US230 million identified in the prefeasibility study completed in May 2021.

Neometals is in the crosshairs of the European Investment Bank for cornerstone debt funding of its vanadium recycling project in Finland. The EIB is the lending arm of the EU and one of the biggest providers of climate-related finance. While it does not tend to lend 100 per cent of required funding for projects, its approval could see other commercial banks come to the table.

Neometals has struck a binding take-or-pay offtake agreement, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Australian Titanium, with Chinese partner Jiuxing Titanium Materials for both direct shipping ore and titanium-rich mixed gravity concentrates. The company says it now plans to update a recent prefeasibility study to reflect the potential for a lower-capital development of its Barrambie titanium and vanadium project near Sandstone in Western Australia’s Murchison region.

Neometals says an engineering cost study has earmarked processing technology developed by subsidiary Reed Advanced Materials as the most economic method for its proposed Estarreja lithium refinery in Portugal. The study was co-funded with Portugal’s biggest chemical producer, Bondalti, with the aim of developing a 25,000-tonne per annum lithium hydroxide operation in a 50-50 joint venture.

Neometals has added grunt to its ore reserve as part of an update to its Barrambie titanium project’s prefeasibility study (PFS). The deposit’s probable ore reserve now sits at 27.6 million tonnes at 22.3 per cent titanium oxide, 43.7 per cent iron oxide and 0.57 per cent vanadium oxide. The PFS update has outlined a $78.1 million capital requirement for one year of DSO production.

Perth-based Neometals says its indirectly-owned subsidiary Novana Oy and Glencore International have penned an offtake agreement to lock in the exclusive sale of battery metal vanadium for five years. Glencore will buy all of the vanadium product, sourced from Finnish steel slag, from Novana starting in January, 2026. It will also continue to provide technical guidance throughout the vanadium recovery project.

Emerging sustainable battery materials producer Neometals says it has completed an engineering cost study for the hydrometallurgical refinery section of its Primobius lithium-ion battery recycling facility. The company says the study delivers greater transparency on the project’s commercial economics. Primobius is a joint venture between Neometals and SMS group, which has installed plants in nearly every country in the world.

Neometals’ joint venture company Primobius has received an order from Mercedes-Benz to supply a 10-tonne per day lithium-ion battery shredding plant for the global vehicle manufacturing giant’s new recycling operation at Kuppenheim in southern Germany. The “spoke” plant is designed to recover materials that will be recycled into a planned 50,000 battery modules that will be installed into new Mercedes vehicles.

The Australian Patent Office has granted Neometals’ recycling subsidiary Primobius timely protection for the key hydrometallurgical separation “hub” of its lithium-ion battery (LiB) recycling process – the downstream component of its mechanical battery disassembly “spoke” plant. The company recently revealed it had received an order from Mercedes-Benz for a 10-tonne per day lithium-ion battery shredding plant for its new recycling operation in Germany.

ASX-listed Neometals has achieved lithium recoveries of greater than 93 per cent from trials of a new process at its Primobius hub plant, in a move expected to offer savings in both operating and capital costs. Primobius is a joint venture (JV) company owned equally by Neometals and SMS group, which has installed plants in nearly every country in the world.

Battery materials recycler Neometals says purification testwork on its pilot proprietary “ELi” lithium production process removes more than 97 per cent of brine feed-source impurities, creating a solution suitable for electrolysis. The company says the level of purification in the clean brine solution meets the specification required for the electrolytic stage in its majority-owned and trademarked ELi process.

Neometals says it has discovered visible spodumene, the major hard-rock source of lithium, under ultraviolet light in historic diamond core from its Spargos exploration licence, which straddles the prospective Mt Ida fault, north/north-west of Norseman in Western Australia. No modern or older lithium assays are available, but resampling and verification work is underway on selected old core retained by the company.

An independent life-cycle assessment into Neometals’ Primobius lithium-ion battery recycling plants has shown the potential for its strategy to produce key battery materials with an exceptionally low carbon footprint. The assessment, conducted by environmental impact mitigation company Minviro, confirmed Primobius’ integrated hydrometallurgical refining process had a significantly lower footprint in terms of global warming potential.

Neometals has revealed plans for its 50 per cent-owned subsidiary Primobius to deliver a fully-integrated hydrometallurgical refinery hub to Stelco, offering recycled battery metal products to the electric vehicle market. Primobius’ option to acquire up to a 50 per cent equity in the Stelco special purpose vehicle has been extended until June 30 in 2025 to align with the fully-integrated plant offer.

Mercedes Benz has put in a $30.7 million purchase order for Neometals’ JV company Primobius to build a hydrometallurgical “hub” to complete the motoring giant’s new lithium-ion battery recycling plant in the German town of Kuppenheim. The order continues a growing relationship between Primobius and Mercedes and includes the fabrication, installation and commissioning of the innovative plant.

Battery materials recycler Neometals has earned a promotion from the United States’ over-the-counter “Pink Sheets” market to now be eligible to trade on the top tier – the OTCQX Market Group’s “Best Market”. It means US investors can now get behind the West Perth-based company with more confidence as the Best Market qualification is underpinned by strict financial criteria regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Neometals is looking to stage a US$10 million ($AU15.1 million) cash-and-shares payment to grab an 80 per cent share in a United States-based company which has developed a hydrometallurgical process that selectively recovers precious metals from industrial waste streams. The company says it has secured an option for the acquisition, believing its expertise could increase production by further refining the pilot-plant process.

ASX-listed Neometals has switched up its corporate strategy to sharpen focus on rolling out bigger and more lithium-ion battery recycling plants to a growing list of license holders via the Primobius joint venture it shares with SMS group. It will also target the sale of non-core assets and building strategic partnerships to share the ongoing development expenditure of other technologies to better manage its capital.

Neometals has dusted off historical data to unveil a new Western Australian gold strategy at its Barrambie project that previously produced 27,000 ounces at 27.8g/t. The company says recent rock-chip samples threw up grades as high as 44g/t, prompting it to pivot back to the precious yellow metal, while its titanium and vanadium pursuits will now take a backseat.

Neometals Ltd has successfully rolled out its patented lithium battery recycling technology with the opening of a Europe’s first automotive battery recycling plant by Mercedes-Benz in Kuppenheim, Germany. Neometals and its 50% technology JV partner, SMS Group, have licensed the ground-breaking technology to Mercedes who will harvest end of life batteries for valuable lithium, nickel and other metals.

Neometals says its pilot-stage ELi electrolytic” process to produce lithium hydroxide from lithium chloride in brine has successfully produced high purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate crystals. The pilot trial involved 1000 hours of exposure of South American lithium chloride brines to Neometals’ electrolytic process and confirmed the expected power consumption, membrane life and scaleability of the commercial application

Neometals Ltd has launched a maiden drilling campaign at its Barrambie project in WA’s Barrambie Greenstone Belt, where records indicate more than 27,000 ounces of gold were produced at an average grade of 27.8 grams per tonne. From reviews of multiple historic mine records, Neometals estimates an initial project exploration target of between 8 million tonnes at 1.3g/t and 10.5mt at 2.3g/t for 335,000 and 775,000 ounces of gold respectively.

Neometals has unveiled the first assay results from its maiden reverse circulation drilling campaign at its Barrambie gold project in WA, breathing new life into an historic high-grade gold region that’s been dormant for decades. An initial 11-hole program was carried out at the company’s Ironclad and nearby Mystery North prospects, confirming gold mineralisation aligned with historical data, ahead of a planned mineral resource estimate later this year.