RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. and Alaska Energy Metals Corp. are officially partnering. On one side, you have RecycLiCo, a critical-minerals refining company that specializes in advanced technologies for processing mined ore and upcycling lithium-ion battery materials. On the other side is Alaska Energy Metals, developing the large-scale, bulk-tonnage, polymetallic Nikolai Project Eureka deposit.

The two companies have started testing metal concentrate samples taken from drill cores at the Eureka deposit in Alaska.

The deposit holds seven metals that the U.S. government classifies as critical minerals: nickel, cobalt, copper, chromium, platinum, palladium, and gold. It also holds iron.

Recent lab tests showed strong recoveries when separating these metals into a bulk nickel-copper concentrate. Now, the goal is to determine the best way to extract and refine those metals using RecycLiCo’s specialized chemical processing tech at their lab in Delta, British Columbia.

Building a Domestic Supply Chain

Base camp at the Nikolai Nickel Project; Photo: Alaska Energy Metals

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This testing is part of a larger agreement between the companies, and it fits into a broader effort to build local supply chains for high-tech manufacturing. Both businesses belong to Minerals for National Automotive Competitiveness, a group that connects raw material suppliers, refiners, and automakers like Lucid to build an all-American supply network.

RecycLiCo expects the lab tests to prove that its hydrometallurgical method can efficiently recover valuable metals for North American supply lines.

“We are pleased to be assisting AEMC with this important phase of their Nikolai Project,” said Richard Sadowsky, Interim CEO of RecycLiCo. “We expect to demonstrate the benefits of using our hydrometallurgical solutions in the recovery of high value materials essential to the establishment of a wholly domestic critical mineral supply chain, and we look forward to our continuing collaboration as the project moves forward.”

Testing Next-Generation Refining Tech

For Alaska Energy Metals, finding the right way to process raw concentrate into high-value metals is a major next step for their project.

“We were invited to join Minerals for National Automotive Competitiveness (MINAC), a collaboration amongst upstream raw material suppliers, mid-stream metal refiners, and end users in America’s automotive industry, with the goal of creating all-American supply chains,” said Gregory Beischer, President and CEO of Alaska Energy Metals. “AEMC was honored to enter this collaborative group which includes RecycLiCo, Lucid and others. It is great to see tangible collaboration in action, and we are excited to see how the RecycLiCo process works on recovering the various metals from concentrates we have produced from the Eureka deposit.”