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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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

WA-based technology company Neometals has announced a key step in its lithium-ion battery recycling efforts, with commissioning of a demonstration plant with its German joint venture partner. Its unique recycling process aims to recover cobalt, nickel, lithium and copper from spent batteries for reuse. Demonstration plant results will inform the joint venture's decision to develop a commercial recycling plant.

Neometals has taken the shrewd step of demerging its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in Western Australia into a new company, Widgie Nickel, which will seek to list on the ASX. Management says the move will benefit shareholders by providing a dedicated nickel-focused entity to advance Mt Edwards, whilst Neometals can focus on its core battery recycling and vanadium extraction businesses.

Neometals says vanadium recovery from its Perth pilot plant has reached steady-state production. Successful completion of the pilot campaign will support the technical feasibility of the company's proprietary process at scale and generate data that will be fed into a definitive feasibility study. Its pilot plant trial will process about 13 tonnes of vanadium-bearing steel by-product from three Scandinavian sites over 22 days.

ASX-listed Neometals appears to have achieved a significant breakthrough in its efforts to enter the North American battery recycling market for the burgeoning electric vehicle and energy storage sectors. The company has executed a memorandum of understanding with leading Canadian steel producer Stelco ahead of finalising a joint venture to process battery cells from scrap vehicles.

ASX-listed Neometals' 50 per cent-owned joint venture company, Primobius has finalised CAPEX and operating cost estimates for its proposed lithium-ion battery recycling operation in Germany. The company is contemplating building and operating an 18,250 tonnes per annum commercial-scale recycling plant, with the forecast CAPEX coming in at US$165 million and operating costs averaging US$1,560 per tonne of batteries processed.

Neometals has tabled an impressive pre-feasibility study on the proposed production of high-purity vanadium pentoxide from high-grade vanadium-bearing steel making by-products or slag in Finland. The company says its vanadium recovery project is tipped to generate total free cash flows before tax of $US764 million or almost $A1 billion at an average of about $US72.7 million a year across an estimated plant operating life of 10.5 years.

Innovative ASX-listed project developer Neometals is set to expands its exposure via a secondary listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Admission to AIM is projected for the second half of this year as the company seeks to gain greater access to UK and European investment capital for four core projects in the burgeoning electric vehicle and energy storage solution sectors.

Neometals is set to lend its expertise in vanadium processing to the low-cost recovery of the specialty metal from waste materials in Europe. The company is nearing completion of a detailed Pre-Feasibility Study which proposes to extract a wealth of vanadium pentoxide from the metal-bearing waste materials produced by SSAB, a large-scale steel producer based in Scandinavia.

Neometals has moved a step closer to production at its massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit in WA after inking an MOU with leading Chinese titanium slag producer, Jiuxing Titanium Materials. The agreement contains the framework for a long-term offtake for either mixed or single metal titanium and vanadium concentrates, with the contract likely to put Barrambie on the fast-track to production.

Neometals has reported encouraging results from preliminary metallurgical test work done on mineralisation from the Armstrong deposit at its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in WA that points to “commercial grade” nickel concentrate. The test work returned a 48.8 per cent recovery for nickel, an enhanced nickel grade of 12.8 per cent, a 55.4 per cent recovery for palladium and a resultant palladium grade of 20.4 g/t.

Neometals has highlighted the strong environmental credentials of its proprietary, patent-pending, vanadium recovery process flowsheet after an independently assessed, ISO-compliant, life cycle assessment showed potential to produce zero-carbon vanadium from the company's proposed Scandinavian vanadium recycling project. Neometals remains on track to deliver a ‘peer-reviewed' PFS to recover vanadium from a vanadium-bearing steel making by-product, known as “slag”, by the end of June.

Neometals' 50 per cent-owned joint venture company, Primobius has clinched a memorandum of understanding with Itochu Corporation that will see the Japanese giant weigh up the recycling potential of Primobius' proprietary lithium-ion battery material processing technology.

ASX-listed Neometals has kicked off a pilot-scale trial program that will test gravity concentrates from its Barrambie titanium-vanadium project in WA as it looks to advance a possibly low CAPEX development of a mining and beneficiation operation. The move comes after recent metallurgical test work undertaken in China confirmed the Perth-based company's “breakthrough” reduction roasting and magnetic separation flowsheet.

Neometals has continued to build its inventory of resources at its Mt Edwards nickel project in WA, with a recent review and upgrade of the Zabel deposit estimating it to now contain some 351,000 tonnes of ore grading at 1.9 per cent nickel. The revision of the Zabel deposit brings the global resource across the project area to a solid 8.74 million tonnes at 1.7 per cent nickel.

Neometals' innovative program of metallurgical test work has recorded a significant breakthrough in the processing of ores from its Barrambie vanadium-titanium project. The company has generated high-quality ilmenite samples from a simple flowsheet utilising gravity separation, low-temperature roasting and a final phase of magnetic separation, clearing the path for a move into production.

Neometals and its giant JV partner, German-headquartered SMS group have delivered on key design, procurement and permitting milestones, paving the way for its lithium-ion battery recycling demonstration plant to be built. The innovative pair recently received approvals to build the demonstration plant at SMS's manufacturing centre in the German town of Hilchenbach as they look to commercialise their joint recycling technology in Europe.

Neometals has successfully demonstrated its proprietary vanadium recovery flowsheet in a continuous mini-pilot test program, yielding exceptional product purity better than 99.5 per cent vanadium oxide and vanadium recoveries of more than 75 per cent. The company said its ‘leach residence' times were 50 per cent below its scoping study design parameters, providing a positive future impact on capital costs.

Primobius GnbH, a joint venture company owned by ASX-listed urban metals player Neometals and its 50 per cent partner, German industrial giant, SMS Group GmbH, has signed an MoU with European battery producer InoBat j.s.a. The intended JV plans to investigate the business case for sustainable recycling of lithium-ion batteries, InoBat production scrap and other, third-party feedstock in Central/Eastern Europe.

Neometals has joined forces with multi-billion-dollar German metallurgical powerhouse, SMS Group, to develop the company's proprietary lithium battery recycling technology. Under the terms of the joint venture, the companies will form Primobius GmbH to commercialise Neometals' lithium-ion battery recycling technology with the recovered product set to be used in the growing battery supply chain.

Neometals Ltd is looking to create a low-cost vanadium production hub in Sweden by utilising its innovative processing technologies to treat waste from SSAB's Lulea steel mill. A recently tabled scoping study over the project estimates it will throw off almost A$80 million a year in cash flow over an initial 10.5-year life with the next stage of test work already underway.

Neometals has lifted the nickel resource at its Mt Edwards nickel project in WA yet again after expanding the resource at its Gillett deposit by a sizeable 30 per cent. Gillett now stands at 22,500 tonnes of contained nickel that sits between 80m and 350m below surface. Gillett is one of eleven ‘short lead time' deposits that Neometals is building.

Neometals has levered its vanadium metallurgical processing smarts to team up with unlisted Scandanavian energy metals player, Critical Metals Ltd to jointly evaluate the viability of building a ground-breaking vanadium recycling plant that will harvest vanadium from “slag”, or waste produced by global steel company, SSAB. SSAB has been stockpiling its vanadium rich steel waste product that Neometals says might be the highest grade vanadium feedstock in the world.

Neometals has completed pilot plant testing on its potentially lithium-ion battery recycling technology with the work pointing to high recoveries of nickel, cobalt and other valuable battery materials such as lithium from spent and scrapped batteries. The company's proprietary hydrometallurgical process can then turn the metals into a host of chemicals for re-use within the lithium supply chain. Commercial-scale feasibility studies and demonstration trials in Europe are next.

Neometals has stunned the market by delivering another cash windfall to its shareholders with a 2 cent, partially franked dividend set to hit their bank accounts on April 3rd. The ‘mine to market', battery metals innovator will pay out A$10.9m of its December 31st cash balance of over $100m to fund the dividend which comes on top of $45m worth of cash returns paid in the last four years.

Neometals has bagged more massive nickel sulphide intercepts at its Armstrong deposit, just 90km south of Kalgoorlie. RC drill assays from holes at the old abandoned pit include 6m grading a serious 8.11% nickel, including 5m grading 9.63% nickel from 206m. Other intercepts in the disseminated nickel zone include 34m at 1.94% nickel from 185m and another 24m intersection grading 1.13% nickel from 237m.

Neometals has confirmed the technical feasibility of its Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit located in the Murchison region of WA following successful metallurgical pilot test work. The work, that was aimed at optimising hydrometallurgical recoveries, produced a high purity “titanium hydrolysate” from the titanium processing phase. The company has now shipped samples of its new titanium bearing concentrate to potential offtake customers to evaluate.

Neometals lithium-ion battery recycling arm has successfully extracted a nickel sulphate solution with more than 99.9% purity in testwork that has far exceeded its scoping study assumptions. The company's hydrometallurgical, patent-pending, battery metals recycling technology extracted a nickel product at a recovery rate of 98%. The work brings Neometals a step closer to a commercial-scale lithium battery recycling operation with a pilot plant due by the end of the year.

Strategic minerals developer, Neometals, has hit the hydrometallurgical jackpot at its Barrambie project in WA, with recent test work recovering a whopping plus-99% titanium from its current processing flowsheet. The uber-successful WA minerals developer has now confirmed that it can successfully recover high purity hydrated titanium dioxide, or titanium hydrolysate, from Barrambie's ores, potentially exposing it to both the titanium pigment and metals markets.

Neometals is continuing its push into nickel with the expeditious upgrading of its inferred nickel resource at the Munda deposit, which is now a strategic part of the company's Mt Edwards project near Widgiemooltha in WA. The update has significantly impacted Mt Edwards' growing inventory, boosting its contained nickel resources to over 130,400t of contained metal, clearing the way for mining studies.