Comstock’s LiNiCo receives permit for lithium-ion battery storage

Comstock Inc., Virginia City, Nevada, has announced that it has received unanimous approval from the Lyon County Board of County Commissioners in Nevada for a conditional use permit for its subsidiary, McCarran, Nevada-based LiNiCo Corp., to operate a lithium-ion battery (LIB) pre-recycling storage facility in Mound House, Nevada. 

The facility will be located at a nearly 200-acre industrial property, which Comstock says is one of the largest industrial parks in Lyon County, with ample power, water and immediate highway access. It will receive, sort and store end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, with capacity for expansion and potential crushing and separating operations. 

The storage building will support LiNiCo’s 137,000-square-foot battery metal recycling facility located in the Tahoe Reno Industrial (TRI) Center in Storey County, Nevada. 

“The receipt and storage of these batteries represent an essential component of our regional supply chain for recycling these critical metals,” LiNiCo Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Corrado De Gasperis says. “We are thrilled with Lyon County’s support as we secure this fundamental piece of the eco system necessary for receiving, storing and, ultimately, recycling waste LIBs.” 

In September, LiNiCo obtained a Written Determination of Hazardous Waste Recycling permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection that allowed it conduct LIB recycling and related operations at the TRI Facility. The conditional use permit for the Mound House facility was the second of three the company is seeking as it inches closer to starting recycling operations. 

“LiNiCo’s technologies are designed to meet the realities of this existing and rapidly growing demand [for LIB recycling] by enabling profitability at the earliest stages of production,” De Gasperis says. “We are very pleased to receive the second of three major permits, and we look forward to receiving our air quality permit for the TRI facility, the final major permit, so we can commence recycling in 2023.” 

The company says it holds the rights to a portfolio of innovative processes that efficiently crush, separate and condition LIB materials while also developing new technologies for extracting lithium and graphite to enable the ultimate reuse of the recovered metals to produce 99- percent- pure precursor cathode active materials.