Aqua Metals Reaches Agreement With Sustainable Lithium-Ion Battery Recycler to Lease-to-Buy the McCarran, Nevada AquaRefinery...
February 16 2021 - 8:00AM
Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) (“Aqua Metals” or the “Company”),
which is reinventing lead recycling with its AquaRefining™
technology, announced it has reached an agreement to lease, with
additional purchase deposits to buy, its McCarran, Nevada plant, a
136,000 square foot facility located on 11.5 acres. This non-core
asset disposition was driven by the Company’s accelerated focus on
its capital-light equipment supply and licensing strategy. The
agreement was reached with an entity focused on sustainable
lithium-ion battery recycling methodologies. In addition to
financial and operational benefits, this new relationship provides
potential strategic opportunities for Aqua Metals going forward.
The agreement is structured to allow Aqua Metals
to retain use of a portion of the building while also receiving
lease revenues commencing on April 1, 2021. Lease payments total up
to $1.9 million during the contract term. The agreement is
structured as up to a two-year triple-net lease with an option to
purchase the land and plant at any time. As part of the
transaction, the lessee is required to pay Aqua Metals two
non-refundable cash deposits totaling $3.25 million. These
non-refundable deposits indicate the lessee’s intention to complete
the purchase. The facility's purchase price is $14.25 million if
the option is exercised and the sale is completed by October 1,
2022, and increases to $15.25 million if the option is exercised
and the sale is completed by March 31, 2023. The structure of the
agreement will significantly reduce Aqua Metals' cash outflow
related to the plant. During the term of the agreement, the
recycler will be responsible for fixed costs, including
maintenance, utilities, insurance, and property taxes.
The lease-to-buy structure is beneficial to Aqua
Metals from both a financial and operational perspective. The terms
of the agreement allow the Company to continue utilizing the
facility, at no cost to Aqua Metals, for its research and product
development activities, including operation of the lab and use of
office space.
“We are very pleased to have successfully
achieved another one of our objectives with this very favorable
lease-to-buy agreement for our McCarran facility,” said Steve
Cotton, President and CEO of Aqua Metals. “The agreement removes
the plant overhead while allowing us use of space for R&D and
product development, which saves us an estimated $4 million in
costs from not having to immediately relocate critical systems to
Aqua Metals’ other facility within the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center
for these activities.”
About Aqua Metals
Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) is reinventing
lead recycling with its patented AquaRefining™ technology. Unlike
smelting, AquaRefining is a room temperature, water-based process
that emits less pollution. The modular systems are intended to
allow the Company to vastly reduce environmental impact and scale
lead acid battery recycling production capacity by supplying
equipment, services and licensing the AquaRefining technology to
partners. This could help meet the growing demand for lead to power
new applications, including stop/start automobile batteries, which
complement the vehicle’s main battery, lead acid batteries which
are in electric vehicles, Internet data centers, alternative energy
applications including solar, wind, and grid scale storage. Aqua
Metals is based in McCarran, Nevada. To learn more, please visit
www.aquametals.com.
Aqua Metals has used, and intends to continue
using, its investor relations
website (https://ir.aquametals.com), in addition to its
Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts
at https://twitter.com/AquaMetalsInc (@AquaMatalsInc), https://www.linkedin.com/company/aqua-metals-limited and
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvxKNWcB69K0t7e337uQ8nQ respectively,
as means of disclosing material non-public information and for
complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking
statements concerning Aqua Metals, Inc. Forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, our plans, objectives,
expectations and intentions and other statements that contain words
such as "expects," "contemplates," "anticipates," "plans,"
"intends," "believes", "estimates", "potential" and variations of
such words or similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future
events or outcomes, or that do not relate to historical matters.
The forward-looking statements in this press release include our
expectations for the sale of the McCarran facility, the benefits of
our new methodology for producing battery manufacturing ready
active material and the future of lead acid battery recycling via
traditional smelters. Those forward-looking statements involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially. Among those factors are:
(1) the risk that we may not realize the benefits of the lease
arrangement or complete the sale of the McCarran facility; (2) the
risk that we may not complete the development of our new
methodology for producing battery manufacturing ready active
material, (3) the risk that we may not realize the expected
benefits from the new methodology; (4) the risk that we may not be
able to satisfactorily demonstrate to potential licensees the
technical and commercial viability of our V1.25 electrolyzer and
AquaRefining process; (5) the risk that licensees may refuse or be
slow to adopt our AquaRefining process as an alternative to
smelting in spite of the perceived benefits of AquaRefining; (6)
the risk that we may not realize the expected economic benefits
from any licenses we may enter into; (7) the risk that we may not
be able to access additional capital as and when needed; (8) the
fact that we have not generated any significant revenue to date,
thus subjecting us to all of the risks inherent in an early-stage
company; (9) the risk that our patents and any other patents that
may be issued may be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented; (10)
changes in the federal, state and foreign laws regulating the
recycling of lead acid batteries; (11) our ability to protect our
proprietary technology, trade secrets and know-how and (12) those
other risks disclosed in the section "Risk Factors" included in our
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on October 22, 2020 and
subsequent SEC filings. Aqua Metals cautions readers not to place
undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company does
not undertake, and specifically disclaims any obligation, to update
or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or
unanticipated events as they occur, except as required by law.
Contact: Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital(905)
326-1888, Ext. 1glen@bristolir.com
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