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Neometals is one step closer to a commercial-scale lithium battery recycling plant after it executed a binding memorandum of understanding agreement with mammoth German engineering firm, SMS Group. The companies will work jointly to assess the next phase of development test work on Neometals' proprietary battery recycling technology. The new partners are proposing to form a 50/50 JV, following due diligence with a view to constructing a demonstration plant.

Neometals continues to confirm the high-grade tenor of its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project in WA's Goldfields on the back of some encouraging diamond drilling assay results from its recently acquired Munda deposit, where one hole returned 8.3 metres at 2.16% nickel from 93m down-hole, including an impressive 2.3m @ 6.11% nickel from 99m at the base of the ultramafic unit.

Neometals has taken a significant step towards establishing its massive Barrambie, titanium-vanadium project in the Murchison region of WA. The company has strengthened its ties with leading Chinese metallurgical expert IMUMR. The joint venture partners are now looking to establish a hydrometallurgical demonstration plant for the deposit and possibly, a subsequent 50:50 JV production arrangement going forward.

ASX-listed Neometals has intersected massive nickel sulphides at its Mt Edwards project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia with drilling returning a cracking intersection of 4m @ 6.3% nickel within a broader 11m @ 2.6% nickel from 108m down-hole at the Zabel prospect. Drilling at the Lake Eaton tenement also showed elevated nickel grades along strike of Mincor Resources' high‐grade Cassini nickel deposits.

Neometals' synthetic zeolite product generated from lithium hydroxide production waste, has held its own against similar industry-leading products from a reference Japanese manufacturer. The company will now proceed with a pilot plant test of its proprietary process in the September quarter of 2019, which will in turn feed into a class 3 engineering study and feasibility study.

Neometals Ltd has signed a binding memorandum of understanding with India's third-largest power trading and diversified renewable energy company, Manikaran Power, to develop the first lithium refinery in the country. The joint initiative comes as India moves to build up a domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and promote the use of more electric vehicles.

Neometals has completed a scoping study for its proposed lithium-ion battery recycling and processing initiative, with results showing encouraging economic outcomes for an initial 10-year plant life. The company will process about 18,000 tonnes of exhausted LIBs per annum and churn out a pre-tax NPV of $308m and IRR of 72%, with a CAPEX cost of $92m and payback in less than two years.

Neometals is now fully focussed on progressing the Barrambie vanadium-titanium-magnetite project near Sandstone, WA, towards a final investment decision this year following the completion of the $104m Mt Marion divestment. The company is also planning to complete the Canadian lithium‐ion battery recycling pilot and feasibility study and proving up the potential of its zeolite production process.

Neometals has commissioned Stage 1 of its lithium-ion battery recycling pilot plant in Canada, with SGS Canada being awarded the contracts to construct and operate the plant at the company's fully accredited Lakefield facility. The battery shredding plant has prepared about 2 tonnes of used battery materials for the Stage 2 hydrometallurgical processing and refining phase to deliver high-purity battery materials into the market.

Neometals will bank another $104m from the final equity sell down of its founding stake in the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The sale takes Neometals' total equity and dividend return from the project to an incredible $200m from an original investment of just $3m. The company's co-shareholders in the project, Mineral Resources and Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium will pay about $51.9m each to become 50/50 co-owners.

Neometals Ltd has commenced an update of its 2009 DFS for the Barrambie vanadium-titanium-magnetite project located near Sandstone in WA, citing a 4-fold increase in vanadium prices since that initial study was conducted. The update will examine development options including offshore processing of the crushed ores, onsite production of a high-grade concentrate for direct sale and potential refining opportunities to generate premium vanadium chemicals.

After largely writing the book on how to develop a massive mineral project as an ASX listed junior using farm in money from its counterparties, Neometals will no doubt be feeling a quiet sense of satisfaction this week after taking receipt of its first $6.2m dividend cheque from the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie.

Neometals has successfully transitioned lithium waste material into pay rock by converting spodumene waste into a little known but lucrative synthetic material known as “zeolite'. A typical operation that processes lithium bearing spodumene mineralisation into Lithium hydroxide would normally deliver almost 90% of the spodume concentrate to waste. Neometals will turn that waste into zeolite and turbo charge the economics of its hydroxide plant in the process.

Neometals will demerge its valuable Barrambie project and associated non-lithium technology assets into a new ASX listed entity, allowing the parent company to focus on its advanced lithium business. The new company will oversee the initial development of the massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium project and create a direct shipping operation of magnetic concentrates out of W.A.

Neometals Ltd has received some very encouraging metallurgical results for potentially direct shipping ore concentrates from its Barrambie titanium vanadium iron project, located near Meekatharra in W.A. The processed ores produced recoveries exceeding 90% for titanium dioxide and also showed high recoveries for pig iron and vanadium. The results provide encouragement that a simple, conventional processing pathway can be developed for the high grade ores.

Neometals Ltd has reported a major increase to its nickel mineral resources at the Mt Edwards project courtesy of four new deposits, nearly tripling metal inventories to 7.4 million tonnes grading 1.7% nickel for just over 123,000 tonnes. The company recently completed the acquisition of the Mt Edwards tenements from Apollo Phoenix Resources and with them, the assignment of further nickel rights.

Neometals has executed a two-year option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sub-lease a 40 hectare site for its proposed lithium refinery, located in an industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie. The site is located close to critical road, rail and power infrastructure, just 70km by road from the existing Mt Marion Lithium operations, where the company will initially source the raw spodumene lithium feedstock.

Neometals has announced it has mined a bulk sample of high grade titanium-vanadium ore from its Barrambie project for dispatch to metallurgy research institutes in China. The material selected is potential ore feed for a future direct shipping operation and samples will undergo extensive beneficiation and pyrometallurgical test work to confirm the optimal processing pathway ahead of offtake pricing negotiations with the Chinese.

In what appears to be a serious opportunity for W.A, the smart money in the lithium space is now moving downstream into the production of lithium-ion battery chemicals such as lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide and the mining of lithium is now looking a bit like the poor cousin. Neometals has kicked off its engineering and design study for a proposed Kalgoorlie lithium hydroxide plant.

Even though Neometals' massive Barrambie titanium-vanadium-iron resource in W.A is of a globally significant scale, it has flown under the radar given that Neometals is better known for its development of the equally significant Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The company surprised the market last week by announcing a 280m tonne Resource at Barrambie grading 9.18% TiO2 and 0.44% V2O5.

Tests on lithium concentrates from the Mt Marion mine near Coolgardie have produced exceptionally high quality lithium hydroxide with a 99.99% purity, making a compelling case for part owner Neometals to move into downstream processing by making use of its off-take agreement with its partners. Neometals is planning to build a 10,000 tonne per annum lithium hydroxide plant for the off-take.

Neometals has announced the acquisition of a strategic brownfields lithium project, located 40km from its existing Mount Marion Lithium project near Coolgardie. The company obtained 75% of the lithium rights to the Mt Edwards Lithium project for a staged consideration of $2.7M and will obtain the remaining 25% lithium rights by purchasing 19 tenements from a private company for a further $1.8M.

An offshore investment and research house has looked at ASX-listed Neometals with a fresh set of eyes and come up with huge valuation of $1.43 a share. The London firm says Neometals is wrongly perceived as just a holding company with a minority share in a lithium mine and believes a corporate split into separate mining and technology companies could trigger a re-rating of its stock.

Neometals' big titanium-vanadium deposit at Barrambie in the northern Yilgarn is coming into its own thanks to surging prices for its two major products, titanium and vanadium. Favourable markets are creating a multitude of development options for Neometals at the project, with the company stepping up work on everything from direct shipping to downstream processing options.

Neometals' push into high-value lithium hydroxide is moving ahead at a rapid pace, with a FEED study expected to get underway in the first quarter of 2018 followed by a final investment decision as early as the end of the year. The plant is just one of three downstream projects in progress, including a cutting-edge lithium titanate research project that could replace graphite in batteries..

New assays from Neometals' 100%-owned Barrambie titanium-vanadium deposit suggest it could be an emerging giant of even higher grade than previously believed. The news coincides with work by Neometals on a number of fronts to accelerate a fast-tracked development program based on direct shipping high-grade ore to China. Recent drilling returned stunning intercepts of nearly 32% titanium dioxide.

The deal-making skill that helped make Neometals become the first of a new breed of Australian Lithium producers has come to the fore once again. The ASX-listed company has landed a Serbian steel mill as its first licensed customer for the company's “Neomet” mineral processing technology. The agreement will see Neometals use the deal as a showcase for a planned rollout of the technology worldwide

Fresh from success at the giant Mt Marion Lithium project, Neometals have turned their attention to their other sleeping giant, the world-class Barrambie Titanium-Vanadium project near Cue in W.A. With the Titanium price jumping by 50% recently, Chinese Titanium producers are screaming for feedstock, creating a potential opportunity for Neometals to cash in via a direct shipping operation.

Perth-listed Neometals are making the transition from Lithium miner to battery materials technologist. The company have lodged a patent in the US to protect their unique technology that extracts Cobalt and other materials from old laptops, mobiles phones and consumer electronics at prices that would make a miner's eyes water.

Neometals' Mt Marion Lithium project near Coolgardie is roaring along at above nameplate capacity just months after the maiden shipment. The Perth-based lithium producer also reported in a project update that Chinese offtake partner Ganfeng Lithium was delighted with the quality of battery grade chemicals produced from the mine.

Neometals have rolled out another breakthrough technology that could make giant lithium brine evaporation ponds a thing of the past. The Mt Marion Lithium mine founder has developed a new titanium-based material that extracts lithium from brines in just 30 minutes, compared to a 12-month wait with evaporation ponds.

Neometals' dream of capturing value all along the lithium battery supply chain is one step closer following great test results for an exciting new type of battery material that can potentially replace graphite. Batteries using the new anode material known as Lithium Titanate outperformed commercially available rivals in recent tests conducted by the company.

Just like they did with Lithium at Mt Marion, Neometals are again seeking to get ahead of the curve with their new battery re-cycling play in Canada that will focus heavily on reproducing Cobalt in addition to other elements such as Lithium. The company is hoping to eventually produce nearly 700 tonnes of Cobalt a year by recycling old batteries.

The extraordinary deal-making skills of Neometals have been put to work once again to secure a $125 million buyout of the company's 13.8% stake in the Mt Marion Lithium project. The remarkable end to Neometals' involvement in Mt Marion means the project will have generated a staggering $213 million for the company from a total investment of just $3 million.

The Mt Marion Lithium mine has proved it is settling into production with the second shipment of concentrates setting sail for China this week. Neometals and their partners in the project also reported that a third, larger shipment is due to leave Kwinana in early April, which represents a further increase in the pace of production.

The board of Australia's newest Lithium producer, Neometals, have signaled their confidence in the company's finances by introducing a share buyback valued at up to $5 million over the next 12 months. The move follows the recent start of production at Mt Marion, which will generate plenty of cash and add to an already strong balance sheet.

Bringing one of the world's largest Lithium mines into production would be enough for many companies, however Neometals are keen to show they still have much more in their armory. They recently unveiled potentially lucrative new technology for recycling cobalt from used Lithium ion batteries that could produce a net present value of at least US$84m over 10 years.

Neometals have dealt themselves into an even better position at the newly commissioned Mt Marion Lithium mine by securing improved off-take and mining services agreements with their major partners. The new agreements effectively boost production by 20% and give Neometals upside exposure to the tightening global Lithium market.

Australia has a new Lithium producer and WA's Lithium boom is well and truly underway. Neometal's giant Mt Marion mine near Coolgardie, this week joined the ranks of Lithium producers as the first shipment of concentrates sailed for delivery to Chinese partner Ganfeng Lithium. Ganfeng will take 100% of the project concentrates for the next three years.

There appears to be no end to the giant Lithium resource at Neometals' Mt Marion project near Coolgardie with a 30% upgrade announced this week on top of a 160% boost just three months ago. The latest upgrade follows a large drilling program between July and September that returned some spectacular intercepts from a high-grade feeder zone.