Comstock acquires majority ownership of LiNiCo

Comstock Mining Inc., Virginia City, Nevada, has increased its overall ownership of LiNiCo Corp., a McCarran, Nevada-based producer of lithium carbonate and graphite from recycled lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), from 45 percent to 90 percent. The company announced its acquisition of an additional 3,129,081 common shares in LiNiCo from that company’s founder, Michael Vogel, in exchange for 3,500,000 restricted Comstock common shares. Comstock also acquired an additional 4,075 Series A Preferred shares.

Aqua Metals, also based in McCarran, has a 10 percent ownership stake in LiNiCo Corp.

Comstock and Aqua Metals announced they will work together to accelerate decarbonization by producing renewable electrification products that support the increasingly high demand for electric vehicles. LiNiCo and Aqua Metals signed a collaboration agreement in November of last year to process black mass from LIBs into high-purity nickel, cobalt and other metals.

LiNiCo has developed proprietary extraction technologies, and its first production facility is being retrofitted and is scheduled to begin initial production with a feedstock crushing capacity of more than 35,000 tons per year during the second half of 2022. The ultimate facility capacity will be designed and permitted to handle more than 100,000 tons per year, Comstock says in a news release announcing the transaction.  

“Increasing our investment in LiNiCo was a natural extension of our plan to build high-cash generating processes that tap into massive markets and decarbonize the supply chains of increasingly scarce natural resources,” says Corrado De Gasperis, Comstock executive chairman and CEO. “We believe that LiNiCo’s pioneering extraction technologies will quickly prove to be the best, most sustainable and most valuable process for the production of lithium and other electrification products from both recycled batteries and virgin natural resources. Increasing our stake to approximately 90 percent will allow us to fully consolidate and control LiNiCo’s business plans, revenue and earnings while enabling our shareholders to participate in the expected significant positive impact of LiNiCo’s business and related proprietary technologies on Comstock’s valuation.

“LiNiCo’s partnerships and propriety technologies differentiate us from our peers by enabling the up-front extraction of lithium and the direct refining of nickel, cobalt and other metals. We are looking forward to incorporating these new processes into our facility and offering best-in-class, sustainable electrification products at a fraction of the costs,” De Gasperis adds.