Comstock subsidiary LiNiCo to sell McCarran, Nevada, facility for $27M

Comstock Inc., Virginia City, Nevada, has announced agreements by lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycler LiNiCo Corp., Comstock’s 88 percent-owned subsidiary, to sell LiNiCo’s facility at 2500 Peru Drive, McCarran, Nevada, for a gross price of $27 million.

According to Comstock, the facility was being leased pursuant to an agreement that permitted LiNiCo to purchase the facility for $15.25 million, of which $3.25 million was previously paid. Comstock says it expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $12.5 million from the sale of the LiNiCo facility, plus any remaining proceeds from a $1.5 million hold-back deposited in escrow, for up to 18 months, to cover the cost of any potential environmental remediation items subsequently identified by the buyer.

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“The sale of this asset was both opportunistic and strategic since we secured our permitted 200-acre battery metal storage facility in Mound House, Nevada, and recently freed up our existing Storey County operating platform and facilities with the termination of the lease with Tonogold,” Comstock Executive Chairman and CEO Corrado De Gasperis says. “These locations are ideal for storing, piloting and recycling electronic devices and batteries for clients throughout the electrification supply chain. We are frankly thrilled to turn a $12 million cash obligation into a $12.5 million net cash inflow, resulting in an immediate and nearly $25 million value swing for Comstock shareholders.”

LiNiCo’s LIB storage facility in Mound House resides in one of the largest industrial parks in Lyon County, Nevada, which Comstock says has ample power, water and immediate highway access. The facility will receive, sort and store scrap LIBs with capacity for expansion and possible crushing, conditioning and separating operations.

Comstock’s Storey County properties also boast a fully permitted mining and metal beneficiation platform that will be ideal for piloting LiNiCo’s crushing, conditioning and separating infrastructure, and for piloting precursor cathode active material (PCAM) recycling and production technology licensed from LiNiCo’s strategic investee and technology partner, Green Li-Ion Pte Ltd.

“The receipt and storage of LIBs represent an essential component of our regional supply chain for recycling these critical metals,” De Gasperis says. “We have vast experience operating in both Storey and Lyon County, and their permitting support has been paramount as we continue building a premier, unique, Nevada-based platform necessary for receiving, storing and recycling waste LIBs and electronic devices into the highest quality black mass and high-value electrification products.”

De Gasperis continues, “Our technologies are designed to meet the practical realities of the existing and rapidly growing LIB recycling demand by enabling profitability at the earliest stages of production. With the highly profitable facility sale behind us, we can now focus on scaling our technologies and pilot operations efficiently, within our existing Nevada infrastructure.”