ABAT Submits Tonopah Lithium Mine Plan for Federal Environmental Review

American Battery Technology Company (NASDAQ: ABAT) submitted a Plan of Operations worksheet for its Tonopah Flats Lithium Project to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, advancing the Nye County mine into the federal environmental review process with the Bureau of Land Management. The plan includes solar and energy storage systems, positioning one of the largest known lithium claystone deposits in the United States for BLM National Environmental Policy Act review.

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project has already secured FAST-41 Covered Project status under President Trump's executive order on American mineral production, giving it streamlined federal permitting and dedicated coordination across agencies. That designation followed the project's completion of all baseline studies required for the NEPA review process, a two-year effort involving more than 40 regulatory agencies. ABTC also submitted a comprehensive Mine Plan of Operations, which is currently under review by the BLM.

The Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is a lithium-bearing claystone deposit approximately 11 km, or 7 miles, west of Tonopah, Nevada. The project includes 517 unpatented lode mining claims covering over 10,340 acres of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. RESPEC Company LLC, engaged by ABTC to prepare an amended Technical Report Summary and Initial Economic Assessment for the property, confirmed the Tonopah Flats site is "owned 100% by ABTC with no significant encumbrances or agreements." Annual property holding costs total $91,569, comprising $85,305 in federal claim fees and $6,264 in county recording fees.

In October 2025, ABTC published the S-K 1300 Technical Report and Pre-Feasibility Study for the Tonopah Flats Lithium Project, which indicates the commercial-scale mine and refinery carries a projected after-tax net present value of $2.57 billion at an 8% discount rate, with a 21.8% internal rate of return and a 7.5-year payback from initial investment. The reserves table in that study shows total proven and probable reserves of 559,848 kilotonnes at an average grade of 805 parts per million lithium, equivalent to 2,733 kilotonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate. Total project lithium resources, measured, indicated, and inferred, increased approximately 11% compared to the prior Initial Assessment to 21.3 million tonnes LHM.

The mine is planned to operate 24 hours a day using conventional surface techniques, feeding the on-site refinery at approximately 12.4 million tonnes per year, with production ramping over the first two years to target full capacity by Year 3. The commercial processing plant will be constructed in three phases, starting at 5,000 tonnes per annum and expanding to the full 30,000-tonne annual capacity. The PFS projects a highly competitive production cost of $4,307 per tonne, representing a 9.2% reduction from the company's April 2024 Initial Assessment.

The next formal step recommended by the PFS is a Definitive Feasibility Study, estimated to cost between $5.8 million and $6.8 million. ABTC has already engaged global construction firm Black & Veatch for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the 30,000-tonne-per-year commercial-scale lithium hydroxide refinery to be built directly at the Tonopah Flats site.

Separately, the Nye County Board of County Commissioners sent correspondence to Tonopah Lithium Corp. expressing intent to collaborate on a Community Benefits Plan tied to a federal grant application. In that letter, addressed to Mr. Ballachey, the board wrote: "The Nye County Board of County Commissioners understands that Tonopah Lithium Corp. is applying for a $300 million Department of Energy Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing Grant to help fund construction of a lithium processing facility at its Tonopah Lithium Claims Project located 6 miles north-northwest of Tonopah, off of the Pole Line Road." The county stated it "intends to collaborate with you to develop a Community Benefits Plan" in conjunction with that DOE application.

ABTC's Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is projected to provide 50 to 125 jobs during construction and 50 or more jobs once operational, creating skilled positions for the Big Smoky Valley regional workforce and supporting economic development across the Nye-Esmeralda County area. Tonopah sits midway between Las Vegas and Reno and provides access to infrastructure including electricity, water, and skilled labor, which the PFS identifies as a strategic advantage for the project's buildout.