By Andrew Kessel 

July 2, 2022 - American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) (ARC) announced that its subsidiary reELEMENT Technologies has put in place a $2 million independent working capital facility to expand its critical battery material production facility in Indiana.

The funds will also be used to increase internal lab space and put in place additional pre-processing to scale the production of high-purity and sustainable battery and magnet-grade critical and rare earth elements, the company said. 

The working capital facility was put in place by Maxus Capital, and allows reELEMENT to establish credit history and provides low cost, non-dilutive, growth capital.

"We've had a positive relationship with the Maxus Capital team and are excited to bring them in as a partner to the reELEMENT business as we bring innovative solutions in terms of being the first and most efficient commercial producer of separated and purified critical and rare earth elements to support the growth of the [electric vehicles] and green energy movement and significantly strengthen our domestic market's capabilities,” ARC CEO Mark Jensen said in a statement. 

Maxus also recently visited the company’s purification facility in Noblesville, Indiana. The facility has successfully completed the chromatography column preparation and system commissioning process for the first-of-its-kind rare earth element production train able to produce high-purity, magnet-grade REE oxides in the US, the company said.

"Having visited the facility and seeing the progress they have made, we were excited to put in place this initial facility to enable reELEMENT to expand beyond their current rare earth production train,” Maxus COO Mike Dance said. 

“We're impressed by the revolutionary technology that they're commercializing and believe our capital is a cost effective way to leverage their asset base and expand their magnet and battery recycling capacity.”

Over the next few weeks, reELEMENT will begin producing pure fractions of neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium and a high-purity mixed fraction of NdPr from end-of-life rare earth permanent magnets that can be used in the manufacturing of new magnets and technologies, the company noted. 

The current Noblesville, Indiana facility will eventually convert to a commercial-scale chromatography testing and innovation hub to continually optimize the process for future expansion and capabilities, the company said.

Additionally, reELEMENT owns a 7.5-acre site in Noblesville for future expansion. The current operating site is being expanded to three production trains for magnet recycling for isolating and purifying neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium to magnet-grade qualities and two production trains for battery recycling in the form of processing black mass into individual isolated and purified battery grade elements (cobalt, nickel and manganese sulfates and lithium hydroxide).