Recycler to Test Processing Technology at Alaskan Critical Minerals Project
As the NAM continues to urge policymakers to strengthen the critical minerals supply chain, manufacturers and metals companies are doing their part to increase domestic sources.
An Alaskan project: Last month, Alaska Energy Metals Corp. announced that RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. would perform tests of its hydrometallurgical processing technology on metal concentrates from AEMC’s planned Nikolai mine (North of 60 Mining News).
- The critical minerals project, located near Fairbanks, Alaska, holds an estimated 15 billion pounds of nickel, according to AEMC, as well as substantial deposits of five other critical minerals: copper, cobalt, gold, palladium and platinum.
- AEMC is conducting numerous different forms of hydrometallurgical testing to find the best extraction methods for the minerals, achieving strong results this month with Lifezone’s proprietary technology at a lab in Australia.
The supply chain fix: AEMC and RecycLiCo are exploring the feasibility of establishing a hydrometallurgical refinery on site at Nikolai, which would be a significant benefit for the critical minerals supply chain.
- Without its own facility on site, AEMC would have to ship its concentrates overseas for mineral extraction because North America has so little capacity for nickel refining.
- That would be an expensive proposition: the combined costs of trucking the concentrates to the Alaskan coast and then shipping them to the refinery would reduce the Nikolai project’s profits.
The auto industry at work: The two companies, brought together by the Minerals for National Automotive Competitiveness Collaboration, signed a memorandum of understanding last year. The collaboration is “an initiative launched by Lucid Motors in 2025 to accelerate the creation of a reliable North American supply of critical minerals for electric vehicles.”
More minerals: In related critical minerals news, Canadian mining company Viscount Mining Corp. announced earlier this fall that it had discovered large deposits of antimony and tellurium at its Cherry Creek Project in Nevada.
- China currently controls most of the global supply of both minerals, on which it has imposed export bans.
NAM in action: The NAM has been calling on policymakers to support the exploration of new domestic sources of critical minerals, along with new processing and recycling facilities, as part of its influential critical minerals agenda.
