Comstock expands leadership for LIB recycling

Comstock Inc., based in Virginia City, Nevada, has appointed Fortunato Villamagna, Ph.D., as the president of Comstock Metals Corp., the entity that owns LiNiCo Corp., its lithium-ion battery (LIB) metals recycling business.

Villamagna has worked in renewable energy, energy recovery, energetic materials, waste to energy and hazardous waste destruction for over 40 years, according to Comstock. He has held positions across the entire spectrum, including research and development, engineering, product development, operations and senior executive management.

“We are honored to welcome Dr. Villamagna to our battery metals team,” Comstock Executive Chairman and CEO Corrado De Gasperis says. “His proven knowledge and experience in technology development, battery chemistries and successful commercialization of similar businesses add breadth and experience to our leadership team.”

Villamagna holds a doctorate in physical and computational chemistry, MSc in spectroscopy/physical chemistry, BSc honors in chemistry and DCS in analytical chemistry. He also holds an MBA in global management.

Villamagna’s most recent work has focused on developing and commercializing new technologies that redefine how emissions are controlled and potentially avoided. He has published over 35 patents and authored several peer-reviewed publications across several technology platforms. For the past decade, he has focused on the hazardous materials destruction and, most recently, clean recycling systems.

Most recently, he served as CEO of Paragon Waste Solutions LLC., a company he founded based on one of the emission control processes he patented. Paragon designs, fabricates and operates medical scrap destruction systems using a low energy plasma process. Villamagna also owns and operates I-Quest Inc., a technology company focused on metal recycling that will amalgamate with Comstock Metals Corp.

“Fortunato will be instrumental in deploying our pilot, producing black mass and battery metals, expanding our operations and supply chain and advancing our technology leadership in Nevada,” De Gasperis says.