Dear investors,
Thank you for your continued support. Today, we welcome our new CEO Iris Jancik, who is joining the company at a pivotal moment for us and the industry, as we just marked commencement of our first commercial operations. With this milestone, we also made history as the world’s first modular commercial DLE system and the first commercial DLE plant in North America.
Our proprietary modular Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) plant co-located at U.S. Magnesium’s site near Salt Lake City, Utah, achieved commercial operations, as of July 11, and is now producing lithium chloride for high-purity lithium carbonate production by U.S. Mag.
This landmark commercial achievement paves the way for us to be a global pacesetter in meeting increasing market demand for battery-grade lithium essential for the automotive and electric power sectors.
The importance of this breakthrough is reflected in a Reuters exclusive news story, as well as coverage by Electrek, Energy Capital HTX, Hart Energy, Mining.com, Mining Technology, Seeking Alpha and many other news outlets, which translates to an aggregate online reach of 70.3 million monthly readership.
This also is personal for me, representing the culmination of my work over the past 46 years, and showcases the deep commitment and hard work of our team. Together, we have made momentous progress, especially over the past six months in three significant ways: Technology, Leadership, Future Opportunities.
Technology Milestones
In just five months, we secured our first commercial partner (U.S. Mag), transported our first modular plant, assembled the plant at the site, commissioned it and have begun commercial operations. What’s remarkable is the speed to market of the plant. This patented technology gives us a distinct advantage over competitors.
Leadership
As we neared the verge of commercialization, we knew we needed an experienced leader who could truly capitalize on our momentum and take us to the next level as a commercial entity. On June 6, we announced Iris as our new CEO to expand our commercialization with new projects.
Iris brings us extensive global water infrastructure engineering and global contracting expertise and experience, which are critical for seizing on our new momentum to build our business in the U.S. and beyond.
We are grateful to former CEO Garry Flowers, whose efforts the past two years have been helpful in securing commercialization of our technology. We thank Garry for his tenure and wish him the best in his future endeavors.
Future Opportunities
You will hear more in the coming months about new partnerships and opportunities we are exploring as word spreads about our unique and compelling technology and the modularity of our simplistic “Lego” design.
At this inflection point in IBAT history, we’re gaining traction with a growing audience who understands why we matter. In the run-up to our operations milestone, we had already garnered significant media coverage, including Axios Pro: Climate Deals, S&P Global, Hart Energy, Houston Business Journal, Mining.com, Mining Technology, Digital Wildcatters’ Chuck Yates Needs a Job Podcast, Chemical & Engineering News, and Financial Times Energy Source.
Thank you for your support of IBAT. I hope you join us in celebrating how far we’ve come and share in our excitement as we take the transformational step from being a technology company to a commercial operator.
Very truly yours,
John Burba
IBAT Founder & CTO
