American Manganese welcomes recognition from US Secretary of Energy on firm's role in critical materials supply chain

American Manganese Inc (CVE:AMY) (OTCPINK:AMYZF) has welcomed comments from the US Secretary of Energy, Dan Brouillette, which have recognized the firm's role in the supply chain of critical materials. The company is advancing a ground-breaking process, which extracts, from spent batteries, cathode materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese at battery-grade purity. "Until our country can start mining and refining more of these materials or develop commercially viable substitutes, we must recycle as much critical mineral and REE content as we can from existing products," Brouillette said in an op-ed published at RealClearEnergy. READ: American Manganese hails optimization tests, which have lifted processing capacity at its pilot plant The Secretary of Energy also highlighted the US's "overdependence" on imports from China, with imports of 31 of the 35 critical minerals being greater than half of  America's annual consumption. Brouillette also referenced two promising developments on recycling at the Department of Energy's National labs, referencing particularly American Manganese's technology. A recent American Manganese project, on which the department partnered, generated recycled products with purities greater than 98% of the three critical minerals, he highlighted. In February this year, the firm unveiled recycling test results of up to 99.72% purity for materials like nickel, cobalt, and manganese generated from disassembled electric vehicle battery packs. This was part of a US government project, announced in March, 2019, which is focused on creating a multi-year project that focuses on developing a circular economy for lithium-ion batteries. Last week, managing director of Benchmark Minerals, Simon Moores, warned of a new global lithium-ion economy being created and led by China. "China is building the equivalent of one battery megafactory a week, the United States one every four months," said Moores. Also in Tuesday's statement, American Manganese said it expects to continue its lithium-ion battery material recycling pilot plant project and optimization testing once the purchase and delivery of specialized equipment is completed. Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com