Aqua Metals Inc Company Profile

Aqua Metals is reinventing lead recycling with its patent-pending AquaRefining™ technology. Unlike smelting, AquaRefining is a room temperature, water-based process that is fundamentally non-polluting. It is deployed as a factory built modular system which allows the lead-acid battery industry to simultaneously improve environmental impact and scale production to meet rapidly growing demand. Aqua Metals is based in Alameda, California, and has built its first recycling facility in Nevadas Tahoe Reno Industrial Complex. Lead is a globally traded commodity with a worldwide market value in excess of $20 billion. Lead acid batteries (LABs) are the primary use of all lead produced in the world. Because the chemical properties of lead allow it to be recycled and reused indefinitely, LABs are also the dominant source of world lead production. As such, LABs are almost 100% recycled for purposes of capturing the lead contained therein for re-use. We believe that our proprietary AquaRefining process will provide for the recycling of LABs and the production of a pure grade lead with a significantly lower cost of production, and with fewer environmental and regulatory issues, than conventional methods of lead production.

In recent years, many lead-zinc mines have become exhausted and recycled lead has become increasingly important to LAB production. Recycled lead surpassed mined lead in the 1990s and now represents more than 60% of the lead content in new LABs. Whether it is produced from lead ore or recycled LABs, lead has historically been produced by smelting. Smelting is a high-temperature, metallurgic/chemical reduction, somewhat inefficient, energy intensive and often a highly pollutive process. As a consequence of its environmental and health issues, lead smelting has become increasingly regulated in many countries. In the US, regulatory non-compliance has forced the closure of large lead smelters in Vernon, California, Frisco, Texas and Herculaneum, Missouri over the last four years. Herculaneum was the last remaining primary lead-mine operation (i.e., smelting lead from concentrates/ore) in the US, though secondary lead smelters that process recycled lead continue to operate in the US. In response to increasing environmental regulation over the past two decades, there has been an expansion of LAB smelting capacity in Mexico and other less regulated countries. The resulting transportation of used LABs from where they originate in the US to smelters in Mexico, South Korea, the Philippines and elsewhere is an increasingly significant logistical and global environmental cost.

AquaRefining uses bio-degradable aqueous solvent and a novel ambient temperature electro-chemical process to produce pure lead (i.e., higher than 99.99% purity). We believe that AquaRefining can significantly reduce production costs as compared with alternative methods of producing pure lead. This cost reduction is partly because our novel electro-chemical process requires less energy than the endothermic high temperature (1400°C) chemical reduction that is at the core of smelting. It is also partly because our process does not generate toxic high temperature dust and gas, or the lead containing slag and dross that are unavoidable byproducts of smelting, and which require capital and energy intensive processes to meet environmental compliance. We also have the potential to locate multiple smaller recycling facilities in areas closer to the source of used LABs, thereby reducing transport costs and supply chain bottlenecks. On this basis, we believe that it significantly reduces environmental emissions, health concerns and permitting needs as compared with lead smelting. We believe that the combined advantages offered by AquaRefining represent a potential step change in lead recycling technology, one that can deliver advantages in economics, footprint and logistics while greatly reducing the environmental impact of lead recycling.


The modular nature of AquaRefining makes it possible to start LAB recycling at a much smaller scale than is possible with smelters, thereby significantly reducing the investment risk associated with building a lead production facility. Our plan is to actively explore distributed recycling in the US beginning with our initial recycling operation near Reno, Nevada. This plan is based on our belief that Reno has become a significant hub of the West Coast’s LAB distribution infrastructure and yet is very poorly served by the LAB recycling industry. From our initial recycling facility near Reno, we intend to expand first throughout the US and then overseas. We seek to develop additional recycling facilities, including facilities that we will own directly and facilities to be developed in association with third parties through joint ventures, licensing and direct sales.

The market for lead is global in scale but local in nature and execution, with large differences in local regulation, custom and practice. In some regions, it is highly regulated, and in others it is not. Consequently, we have developed our business model to commercialize our technology optimally across multiple countries.

In the US and similarly regulated countries, our plan is to build and operate LAB recycling facilities, both directly and in association with third parties through joint ventures, licensing and direct sales. As an example, on February 7, 2017, we entered into a series of agreements with Johnson Controls Inc., (Johnson Controls), pursuant to which, among other things, we agreed to work with Johnson Controls on the development of a program for the installation of new greenfield builds and conversion of Johnson Controls and certain strategic partners of Johnson Controls’ existing lead smelters throughout North America, China and Europe to a lead recycling process utilizing our proprietary and patent-pending AquaRefining technology and equipment, know-how and services.

Through our relationships with Battery Systems Inc., Interstate Battery System International, Inc., and Johnson Controls, we believe we are now able to pursue our expansion of our directly-owned recycling facilities in the U.S. subject to our receipt of necessary funding. Our plan is to locate our facilities close to the regional supplies of used LABs that we have secured with these relationships. Additionally, through the supply and off-take relationships that we have established with Battery Systems, Inc., Interstate Battery and Johnson Controls, we believe we are better positioned to acquire the necessary funding, including potential forms of non-diluting financing, in order to finance our next facilities.

Lead recycling is subject to a variety of domestic and international regulations related to hazardous materials, emissions, employee safety and other matters. While our operations will be subject to these regulations, we believe that one of our potential advantages will be our ability to conduct lead recycling operations with less regulatory cost and burden than smelting operators. One of our key objectives will be to educate regulators and the public as to the environmental benefits of AquaRefining. We believe we have the potential to develop a business model that offers both strong economics and the opportunity to conduct in a socially responsible manner an important recycling activity that to date has been conducted in an inefficient, energy intensive and often highly polluting manner.