Aqua Metals receives $2 Million from LiNiCo

Aqua Metals Inc., McCarran, Nevada, has announced it has received a $2 million, nonrefundable deposit from LiNiCo Corp., a cleantech provider and aggregator focused on closed-loop lithium-ion battery recycling. The money is part of the previously announced industrial lease agreement the companies signed last year. 

Per the agreement, Aqua Metals leased its 136,750-square-foot recycling facility at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center to LiNiCo. During the lease term, LiNiCo has the option to purchase the land and facilities at a purchase price of $15.25 million if the option is exercised and the sale is completed after Oct. 1 and before March 31.  

Aqua Metals says the purchase option is subject to LiNiCo’s payment of two nonrefundable deposits, an initial $1.25 million which was paid by Oct. 15, and a second nonrefundable deposit of $2 million by Nov. 1, both of which will be applied toward the purchase price. The lease agreement is a triple-net lease pursuant to which LiNiCo will be responsible for all fixed costs, with monthly lease payments starting at $68,000 per month and increasing to $100,640 in the last six months of the lease. 

Aqua Metals ended the third quarter with cash balances of $9.3 million, and, with this deposit, the company says it added an additional $2 million to its balance sheet. 

“The early payment of this second deposit significantly bolsters our cash reserves as we approach revenue milestones for our AquaRefining technology,” says Judd Merrill, chief financial officer of Aqua Metals. 

Aqua Metals says its AquaRefining technology is a room-temperature, water-based process that is nonpolluting and uses an electroplating process that builds metal by plating one atom at a time. The approach for multimetal recovery for lithium-ion battery recycling is designed to recover a higher percentage of metals in a higher quality form.