Aqua Metals Signs Over $105 Million Copper and Aluminum Offtake Partnership

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 14, Aqua Metals of the United States announced that it had signed a five-year offtake letter of intent with a Midwestern metal recycling company, which intends to purchase up to 100% of the saleable copper and aluminum products from future production at the Project Headwaters commercial lithium-ion battery recycling project. Based on the project's planned output and current metal prices, the copper and aluminum products covered by the agreement are expected to be worth more than $105 million over the five-year term.

Project Headwaters is a commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling and critical materials refining facility planned by Aqua Metals, focusing on processing power batteries and battery manufacturing scrap, including large-format lithium iron phosphate battery materials. The project's pretreatment system first separates copper and aluminum from battery feedstock and forms them into separate saleable metal products; the remaining material then enters Aqua Metals' proprietary AquaRefining electrochemical hydrometallurgical process to continue recovering lithium and other battery materials.

Under this partnership arrangement, the two parties will complete product specification verification and negotiate a formal offtake agreement within the next 24 months. Final pricing for the copper and aluminum products will be linked to market benchmark prices, with adjustments based on product specifications and commercial terms. After the project's first phase produces representative copper and aluminum products, it will move into the customer verification and final offtake contract signing stage.

Aqua Metals had previously established a six-year lithium carbonate product offtake framework with WMC Group. With the addition of this copper and aluminum offtake arrangement, all three main products of the Headwaters project—lithium carbonate, copper, and aluminum—now have potential sales channels. The project plan also includes graphite and phosphate-containing material recovery, aiming to increase feedstock utilization and project revenue sources for the commercial recycling facility by expanding the range of saleable products.

This offtake partnership occurs before the project's formal construction and can provide a product sales basis for Headwaters' subsequent financing, construction, and commercial operations. Once the project enters the construction phase, it will involve equipment and engineering needs for battery pretreatment, crushing and sorting, hydrometallurgy, electrochemical refining, material handling, and environmental treatment.