Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Our next presenter is going to be Alex Flores, the CFO of American Battery Technology Company. Please give him a warm welcome.
All right. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your time and also for your interest in learning more about American Battery Technology today. At American Battery Technology Company, ABTC for short, we are commercializing our internally developed technologies for both critical minerals mining and manufacturing and critical minerals recycling to build out the North American battery metal supply chain. I'm Alex Flores, ABTC Chief Financial Officer. My background includes over two decades of experience in project finance and manufacturing in the automotive sector, including electric vehicle battery production. ABTC is publicly traded in Nasdaq with ticker ABAT. Our market cap is over $200 million, and our headquarters are located in Reno, Nevada. We now have four locations and commercial operations and just about 200 employees. We are in a revenue generation ramp-up stage, and our 2026 fiscal year results reflect our strong performance.
ABTC is here to facilitate the transition to a battery manufacturing, closed-loop, low-cost, and domestic, environmentally responsible supply chain. With current infrastructure for supplying battery metals not keeping pace with demand from electric vehicles, energy storage systems, and gigafactories, three independent challenges have been identified. The first one is the security of supply. The U.S. holds less than 1% of global battery materials manufacturing capacity for metals designated as national security, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. With China controlling over 80% of global processing for cathode and anode materials, it exposes the U.S. to a considerable supply chain and trade restrictions. The second challenge is the cost of supply. With battery materials demand superseding new supply, manufacturing cost is impacted by battery metals imports and high logistic costs. Third, the environmental impact is the third challenge.
Greenhouse gas emissions, contaminated water, and soil are risks that are greater when sourcing and refining battery metals in regions with less strengthened environmental regulations. Our approach is to first close the loop and then fill the loop. We have internally developed proprietary technology where waste material from chemical refineries or waste cells from battery manufacturers or battery packs, storage units, or consumer electronics products are being demanufactured, and battery metals are recovered, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium, to close the loop and provide a second life in similar applications. We also have our Tonopah Flats Lithium Project, which addresses American battery critical mineral supply industry needs through a U.S.-located mining and refinery project to fill the loop, strengthening domestic supply and bringing battery production cost down.
Our U.S. unique value proposition includes a 138,000 square foot lithium-ion battery recycling facility, which is located outside of Reno, Nevada and has a 20,000 metric tons per year intake capacity, where operations commenced in October of 2023. A 45 years life of mine mineral resource and refinery located midway from Reno to Las Vegas, which financials will be addressed during this presentation, and an in-house research and development lab leveraging new technologies for the business. We combine commercial lithium-ion battery recycling with lithium mining and refining, all based in the U.S., reducing reliance on foreign supply chains and securing a stable battery materials supply chain. Moving now into ABTC's recycling business.
Our technology combines a demanufacturing process where we systematically convert battery packs into modules into cells into sub-cell components, allowing the separation and sorting materials production recycled products including copper, aluminum, steel, and a lithium intermediate black mass. Then the second phase on the right hand, then further refines material into battery-grade nickel sulfate, manganese sulfate, cobalt sulfate, and lithium hydroxide. By keeping the entire process under one roof, we are able to maximize operational efficiencies, achieve higher overall material recovery, and eliminate logistic inefficiencies. Our recycling process delivers several technical advantages, such as feedstock processing certainty, as we are capable of processing a wide variety of battery sizes in a high-purity yield by recovering battery-grade lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese to meet OEM specifications. Our technology and business model has attracted support from both the public and private sectors, validating our approach and path to commercialization.
Our proven performance include a $2 million awarded grant from the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium. ABTC has been also awarded by Fastmarkets and CleanTech Breakthrough Recycling Solutions. Fastmarkets is a global pricing reporting platform serving metals and mining markets. ABTC has been approved by the USEPA under the CERCLA offsite rule to process waste and handle end-of-life ion batteries. CERCLA stands for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, which primary goal is to clean up abandoned and uncontrolled inactive hazardous waste sites and prevent chemical spills or toxic releases. We have established an intake model through our landmark partnership with The Battery Network, expanding beyond traditional business-to-business operations and opening a direct pipeline to consumer battery recycling. Second, we are scaling up our operations with the design of a second lithium-ion battery recycling facility, which will be strategically located in the southeast United States.
This new plant is designed with 100,000 metric tons per year intake, representing a five-fold increase in capacity over our first facility. The second facility has also received support from the Department of Energy. We have awarded grant equivalent to $150 million, and we have announced a total CapEx investment for this second facility of $375 million. This is a grant, not a loan, so there is no payback. There are different performance milestones that we will need to achieve. Moving into our mining business and just as background, today, Australia, Chile, China produce nearly 90% of the world's raw lithium, which highlights the strategic importance of new domestic sources. In the U.S., a very large lithium-bearing deposit exist within sedimentary resources in central Nevada. ABTC has developed an internal proprietary set of technologies to access this lithium in this unconventional claystone resource.
We have developed first-of-kind technologies on 631 unpatented lode mining claims, covering more than 13,000 acres near the historic mining town of Tonopah. This lithium resource is a unique claystone resource and offers a structure that allow us to access lithium in a way that produces high volume, low cost, and low environmental impact battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Our Tonopah Flats Lithium Project hosts 21.3 million tons of accessible lithium hydroxide monohydrate extracted from claystone at lower transportation costs, providing certainty to supply chain security in America. This generational asset will support a projected 45 years life of mine, more than 200 full-time employees, and a peak mining rate near 30,000 tons per day.
From our pre-feasibility study that it was published basically a year ago, the economic potential shows an after-tax internal rate of return of 21.8%, a net present value of $2.6 billion, a highly competitive production cost of just over $4,300 per metric ton of lithium hydroxide monohydrate. Supporting infrastructure will include a state-of-the-art surface mine, a commercial refinery, sorry, and a behind-the-meter solar field with battery energy storage system, ensuring efficient sustainability operations. The mine is located in an energy community. That also means that based on 48E credits, we may aim to earn up to 50% of 48E credits for the total solar CapEx. For the mining and refinery project, we have also received strong strategic support through a $900 million letter of interest from the Export-Import Bank for our mining and refinery operations.
The mining project has been designated a priority project under FAST-41 framework, which should streamline the federal permitting process. We have now initiated our definitive feasibility study based on the PFS findings. We have completed all required NEPA baseline studies for the project and submitted the results to the Bureau of Land Management, a critical prerequisite for advancing through the federal permitting process. BLM has deemed approved our mining and refining plan of operations that we have been working on since November of 2022 for our Tonopah mine and refinery project. Mid-September, we published our 2026 fiscal year results with highlights in record revenue, $21.7 million, a 407% increase year-over-year. Cost of goods sold, on the other hand, represented only a 67% increase through operation efficiencies deployment in our outside of Reno, Nevada lithium-ion battery recycling facility. The company reported annual cash basis gross profit of $1.7 million.
This is a non-GAAP measure that excludes non-cash items such as depreciation and stock compensation. We ended the year with a very healthy balance sheet. We closed with $49.5 million in cash, and we have zero debt in our balance sheet. We haven't just secured a world-class resource. We have developed proprietary technology to refine it. We have successfully designed, constructed, and operated a multi-ton per year integrated pilot facility that has produced battery-grade lithium from our Nevada claystone. This crucial step has allowed us to de-risk the technology at scale and produce battery-grade products. We're now moving forward with commercial integration. We're working on strategic partner selection for long-term commercial offtake agreements to continue to solidify our role in North America battery supply chain. I open the floor for questions now, please.
Thank you. China has ruthlessly flooded the market with low-price lithium. America has an extreme dearth of engineers. China has an extreme surplus in the many thousands. How does an American lithium company or lithium-based company survive without a stringent tariff program, and would even that be enough?
That's a great question. Thank you.
It's the ultimate question. There's no shortage of lithium on the planet. There's large deposits all over the place.
Correct, and that's what we're addressing. We depend right now on Australia, Chile, China. That's where the lithium is being mined. In China, it's refining for cathode and anode materials.
Refining. It's a refinery. You need to process it into a battery-grade lithium. That's what China is doing. We are tackling both. Right now, our business model includes recycling any batteries that are already located in the U.S. We receive those packs, we demanufacturing, we put them into this granulator, and we have basically two product streams. One is mixed metals, copper, aluminum, steel, and the second one is black mass, which is a lithium intermediate. The black mass, you can further refine it into the sulfates and lithium monohydrate. What we're doing is recycling, but at the same time, with our mine in Tonopah, Nevada, we will be extracting, mining, and then refining to reduce any dependency that we have from abroad.
What are the economics of recycled metals versus refining [inaudible].
Our process right now, we have one side that is operating where we demanufacture the batteries, the packs, and that's where we have the two product streams. We have a second phase where we can further refine it. However, the economics are not favorable at this time to further refine and obtain or produce lithium monohydrate. That said, for this second phase, we have a 48C credit.
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No, it is not ore, and that would be on the mining side of the business. It is claystone, which is different than the ore. But I was talking about our recycling facility in Reno, Nevada. The economics do not make sense at this time to further refine it. Now, need to make a comment here. At the end of August 27, there was a directive from the federal government, the Department of Commerce, which banned the export of black mass, which is the majority of our revenue generation. We filed for a waiver, and we received a license to sell up to $100 million of black mass, to export up to $100 million of black mass. So right now, what has value in the market is the black mass, and the federal government recognizes that. That is why they put this ban at the end of August.
The black mass is going back to China.
No, we are not selling to China, though other of our competitors may be doing that. And I do not know if our competitors received the license, but we are not selling to China.
We're selling to, most of them, Korea, OECD countries. South Korea. Please.
What's the next step in the mine development? Do you have to do a PEA with the FID, or what's the estimated timeline for production?
Because we are a priority project under FAST-41, you can see it on the dashboard. We're supposed to receive the notice of intent from the BLM August 12. Then they pushed the date to October 14, and we're already on the 21st. So we're waiting to receive the NOI. Once we receive the NOI, we should be able to move into the environmental impact statement, and from there, that will move us into federal permitting and with FAST-41, which will streamline the process.
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Our expectation under FAST-41 is that by mid-next year, we should be able to break ground.
Okay.
We will be constructing three trains. The first one is to be commissioned, and then it will be followed by the second and the third train, so it will be a gradual process. Please.
Okay. Musk's company has developed a ferrous-based, if I remember it right, battery tech that he's going to use on the robotaxis. What's unique about the design is the structure, the alignment of the atoms and molecules. It has a very structurally-based concept. Do you know anything about it? Do you have any thoughts on it? Perhaps its cost versus lithium, et cetera, et cetera. The idea of this was to get away from China-based batteries.
I'm not familiar with the description you just shared. For that, I can definitely come back with one of my engineers that are more familiar with those topics. Now, what I can say is that our approach, our strategy, is aligned with any administration. A good example is that under the Biden administration, we were granted a $57.7 million grant from the Department of Energy for our first phase refinery in Tonopah, in our mining site. Under the Trump administration, the new administration, it was terminated last year at the end of October. However, we engaged in conversations with the Department of Energy, and the grant, $57.7 million, was restated. All of this is to say that our approach, our business proposal addresses American Energy Dominance Act. Regardless of the administration, we are looking to reduce any dependency from abroad.
All of our sites are located in the U.S. It is a U.S. operation.
You are more focused on the materials rather than the assembled battery.
Yes, on the recycling and the critical minerals. Correct. Lithium on mining and nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium in recycling.
In the end, you are inputs centric.
What do you mean with that, sorry?
Well, it's the inputs into making the batteries.
It's the feedstock that we are processing right now on recycling, yes, and inputs for the battery manufacturing, yes.
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Correct. Another one? No, you, sir. Do you have any other questions?
Yeah. I have been interested in this for a number of years. Do you have any contacts within the think tanks that have working groups on this, such as FDD in D.C., Foundation [inaudible]
I need to get back to you on that one.
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All right.
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Okay. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.