Collab to study proprietary system with particles and supercomputing.

Soon to leverage one of the world's most powerful supercomputers and a particle accelerator capable of imaging matter at the atomic scale, American Battery Technology Company has entered a new $1 million collaborative agreement with Argonne National Laboratory to validate and optimize its next-generation lithium hydroxide manufacturing technology.

Amid growing federal efforts to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains for critical battery materials, a wave of U.S.-based companies has begun building infrastructure to extract, refine, and recycle key minerals required for electrification.

Driven by a combination of Department of Energy funding, executive directives, and strategic permitting reforms, these initiatives aim to anchor domestic capabilities across the full lifecycle of battery production.

Among the most active participants, American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) has developed vertically integrated operations that span lithium extraction, advanced materials refinement, and closed-loop battery recycling – positioning the Nevada-based firm as a central contributor to national electrification and materials independence strategies.

Backed by a growing portfolio of federal funding and regulatory support, the company has secured more than $200 million in U.S. Department of Energy grants to build and expand its commercial-scale lithium hydroxide refinery and battery recycling infrastructure in Nevada.

Designated a FAST-41 Transparency Priority Project in 2025, ABTC's Tonopah Flats development holds one of the largest known lithium claystone resources in the country, with 21.15 million metric tons of lithium hydroxide monohydrate equivalent across all resource categories.

The project is also under consideration for up to $900 million in financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, further reinforcing its strategic importance to the national battery supply chain.

Together, these developments position ABTC to establish a fully integrated platform for the extraction, refinement, and recycling of critical battery materials within the U.S. domestic framework.

Argonne National Laboratory

Through ultra-high-resolution imaging, the Advanced Photon Source will track material changes within ABTC's lithium conversion system during extended operation.

As part of its expanding domestic operations, ABTC has launched a $1 million collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to quantify the long-term performance of its electrochemical lithium conversion system using advanced imaging and real-time materials analysis.

Unlike traditional approaches that rely on bulk chemical agents to convert lithium-bearing material into battery-grade compounds, ABTC's process uses an electrochemical pathway that minimizes reagent consumption and waste generation while maintaining product quality.

To assess long-term efficiency and reliability, the company will model system behavior over multi-year operating cycles using advanced imaging and real-time material analysis at ANL's Advanced Photon Source in Illinois.

The resulting performance data will then be processed and interpreted using ANL's Aurora Exascale Supercomputer, one of the fastest computing systems in the world, purpose-built for large-scale scientific modeling and materials discovery.

"We are committed to developing the next generation of critical mineral manufacturing technologies and to bringing these technologies to commercialization in our domestic-US facilities," said American Battery Technology Company CEO Ryan Melsert. "We are proud to be addressing the challenges of bringing such advanced processing technologies to market with a partner such as the Argonne National Laboratory."

This collaboration with Argonne complements ABTC's ongoing partnerships with other DOE national laboratories, including Idaho National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as part of a coordinated push to scale domestic production of battery-grade materials.

By anchoring its technologies in national lab infrastructure and DOE-backed validation, ABTC is working to deliver a scalable, next-generation framework for lithium refinement and recycling – built to meet the ever-expanding demands of domestic electrification.