Green Light for Battery Recycling & Nickel Ingot Production
Wed, April 13, 2022, 10:35 PM
MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / April 13, 2022 / St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE:SX)(OTCQB:SXOOF) (FSE:85G1) is pleased to announce that on April 12, 2022, its board of directors has voted unanimously to authorize its subsidiary EVSX to move forward with its plan to recycle batteries and produce nickel ingots in Baie-Comeau, Québec in 2022.
St-Georges, via and in conjunction with its subsidiary EVSX, expects to initiate the acquisition of a building and is in talks to establish options on two additional land plots representing close to 400,000 square feet. These transactions should be initiated during this month of April. The plots of land are adjacent to rail lines and will be admissible to tax credits and other incentives from the federal and provincial governments, as well as a basket of incentives from the municipality.
This initial commercial showcase plant will constitute phase one of a series of other developments to be established, via a modular approach, in different locations. The plant in Baie-Comeau will be constituted of three circuits, each able to process 200 metric tonnes per hour. One of the circuits will be reserved for nickel-cadmium batteries. The other two are expected to process a mix of different chemical types in order to produce black mass to be processed further in a separate tech plant.
The CAPEX for the project's first phase is currently estimated at roughly CA$15,000,000, including grants, incentives, and contingencies, and the plant should be commercially operational before the end of the year. It is expected that between 6 to 8 million dollars will be raised by St-Georges either in equity or in convertible debenture. The Company expects to finance the building and equipment via commercial loans and mortgages. These lending instruments have not yet been negotiated, and there are no current guarantees that the Company will be successful in securing lenders. The incentives are also in the discussion stage with the different levels of government. St-Georges expects to be able to provide more information on these matters within the next 60 days.
The independent consultants working on the feasibility study for the Company will deliver a phase one report to EVSX management this week. The Company expects to augment and extend their mandate to define and articulate phase two of the EVSX project. Multiple sites will operate as feeder sites for Baie-Comeau (nickel center), with other locations to be identified. Sites in Contrecoeur, QC and Hamilton, ON are currently under review but are not owned by the Company. There is no guarantee that the Company will acquire any of the sites at this stage. These modular plants will allow for the processing of all sorts of batteries, the front-end recuperation of the steel, copper, aluminium, and carbon (graphite) and the production of critical minerals-rich black mass. The Company expects to deploy these modular plants itself or in partnerships in areas where a significant availability of spent batteries exists or where the local authorities are expected to embark on large recycling profit sharing program with the Company. Iceland and certain American jurisdictions are being reviewed by the Company for this purpose.
The Company had already disclosed its metallurgical results from the recovery of metals in nickel-cadmium batteries (See Press Release from January 13, 2022, titled "EVSX Nickel-Cadmium Battery Recycling Results" and Press Release from March 13, 2022, titled EVSX Commercial Batteries Recycling & Nickel Metal Smelting Operation Update ).
Additional information concerning the recuperation of the plastics as well as the access to feedstock will be released in the coming weeks. The Company will not make public forward-looking statements on the revenue projections, nor will it publish the full content of the feasibility study, which contains significant trade secrets and confidential commercial data and strategies.
"(...) Baie-Comeau is a strategic location for St-Georges with respect to our interests in nickel (…) I think it no longer is a secret that we are pretty excited by nickel in this region. This investment allows us to accelerate the work towards developing our nickel centric operations (…) its also the beginning of a global business deployment strategy that will conclude in the implementation of many of these satellite specialized centers of excellence (…) that will culminate in the development of a large tech plant in the second phase of our commercial deployment. This effort will require significant investments over many years that will allow us to secure our position in the industry (…,)" said Enrico Di Cesare, CEO of EVSX and VP of Research & Development of St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp.
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ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
"Herb Duerr"
HERB DUERR
President & CEO