Neometals (ASX:NMT) has secured an option to acquire an 80% equity interest in privately held Precious Metals Recovery (PMR), which has developed a process to selectively recover precious metals from industrial waste streams.
PMR operates a pilot plant in Colorado, which has shown its proprietary hydrometallurgical processing flowsheet can recover precious metals from industrial waste streams.
Under the agreement, Neometals, which has a market capitalisation of $71.62 million, will pay PMR vendors US$50,000 ($75,348) within three days of executing the agreement.
Throughout the option period, Neometals will have access to conduct due diligence on PMR and its business to determine whether or not to exercise the option.
The purchase price for acquiring an 80% interest in PMR from GreenFuels Energy and STRATA Trust Company is US$10 million, comprising US$500,000 worth of Neometals shares, US$2.4 million cash, and three subsequent payments of US$2.37 million.
Managing Director Chris Reed says the company’s relationship with PMR has enabled Neometals to secure this opportunity to evaluate a potential source of short-term cashflow through precious metal recovery from industrial waste.
“Producing precious metals from an industrial waste material is a natural hedge to our battery materials focused plant supply and technology licensing business models,” he says.
“We hope to confirm the technical feasibility of the PMR technology to deliver lowest quartile operating costs and show that precious metals production can be green too.”
Neometals’ technical team has supervised the completion of an initial six-week variability metallurgical test work program on multiple feed sources with varying reagent and final product recovery regimes.
Results from the program are expected in the coming weeks.
Neometals says a second confirmatory test work program on the feedstock/reagent/recovery regimes has begun and is expected to be completed in June this year.
PMR’s pilot plant came into operation following nearly two years of research and development activities, including processing over 100 batches of industrial waste, ranging from 100kg to 250kg in size.
The pilot plant was designed to process two tonnes per day and is currently capable of processing 0.5 tonnes per day.
Neometals is a critical mineral-focused company that is commercialising a portfolio of sustainable processing solutions and recovering critical materials from high-value waste streams.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock
