American Resources inks deal with India firm to set up battery operation in Marion
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A pair of subsidiaries of Fishers-based American Resources Corp. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Lohum Cleantech Ltd., a battery recycling and reuse company in India.
ReElement Technologies Corp. and American Metals LLC plan to form a joint venture with Lohum to establish what they say will be the country’s first fully integrated battery recycling, repurposing, and critical material production facility in Marion.
Located at American Resources’ Marion Advanced Technology Center, the partners said the operation will include an initial $30 million investment and the creation of 250 jobs.
CEO Mark Jensen said Lohum will help the company expand its offerings to include repurposing lithium-ion batteries.
“Second-life applications of batteries was never in our business model initially,” said Jensen. “With the Lohum partnership, we’re now able to do that as well. So it gives us another tool in our tool chest to help us drive value in the United States and to also be able to grow faster, better, stronger, using the latest technologies that are out there.”
American Resources said the operation will cover the entire battery and critical minerals lifecycle, including battery cell testing and segregation for second-life energy storage applications, as well as recycling, mineral refining, engineered materials, and battery-grade products.
“It’ll basically produce the product that feeds into our re-element process for the refining to battery-grade materials, but also working on the mechanical aspects of second-life applications—taking batteries in and reconfiguring them for energy storage markets, which are growing rapidly,” Jensen said.
The facility will be able to produce critical materials with purity levels greater than 99.5% that can then be circulated into the U.S. battery ecosystem, the company said.
Jensen said the partners aim to begin operations within the next six months.
“As Lohum expands its presence in North America, we welcome this opportunity to partner with ReElement and American Metals, companies that share Lohum’s goals of making battery materials last forever,” Lohum CEO Rajat Verma said in written remarks. “We believe the joint venture will be instrumental in building resilient critical material supply chains in the U.S. that can sustain themselves through circularity.”
Revitalizing a historic manufacturing site
The Marion Advanced Technology Center is being developed at the former RCA Thomson plant, a 425,000-square-foot facility that has undergone renovations over the past year and a half.
The plant sits on a 42-acre campus that at one time employed several thousand people in the region.
Plans to repurpose the plant were first detailed in July 2023. ReElement Technologies said at the time that it would invest a minimum of $100 million to convert the facility into a rare earth and battery material refinery that could eventually employ more than 300 people.
Since that time, the company has taken what Jensen referred to as a building that could’ve been used in a horror movie into a fully renovated facility with the necessary infrastructure in place. Crews are currently finishing up the replacement of the building’s roof.
Now, ReElement Technologies is preparing to start installing equipment by the end of the year, and the company is also starting to build up its workforce.
“Probably the most exciting aspect for me is we’ve been retraining individuals that helped us on the renovation of the building that are now learning how to use our technology,” Jensen said. “So they come down to our Noblesville site and are shadowing our team there and actually running our facilities down there now. Then, they are going to be running the equipment up in Marion.”
That part of the Marion operation will focus on rare earth elements that are used in F-35 fighter jets, nuclear submarines, and the propulsion systems of electric vehicles and power tools.
Jensen said the initial two production lines will process rare earth ores and rare earth end-of-life magnets and recycling them back into the supply chain.
“We’ll actually be the only player in the country that’s doing that today for both light rares and heavy rares and doing it economically to take back that market share from China,” he said.
The facility will scale up to an initially targeted production capacity of 5,000 metric tons of ultra-pure lithium hydroxide or carbonate per year, and 2,000 metric tons per year of rare earth oxides, according to the company.
The rare earth operation will initially employ about 90 workers.
Preparing the workforce
In addition to the current employees training in Noblesville, American Resources is partnering with Ivy Tech Community College to provide technical training and a degree pathway through the college’s Achieve Your Degree program.
Jensen said the relationship with Ivy Tech’s Marion campus is all about finding the best and brightest talent available.
“In today’s day and age, it’s hard to find great people just because unemployment rates are low,” he said. “Making sure that we find people that want to get into the workforce and are trainable employees that can understand our process is really important.”
Additionally, Jensen said the support from the city of Marion and Mayor Ronald Morrell has been tremendous.
“That’s part of the reason why we chose Marion. It’s got a really talented workforce. The community has been in the industrial environment for a long time. Working with the local officials there—they’ve been absolutely phenomenal to work with and super supportive about creating good jobs, jobs that are going to be around for a long time to pay livable wages so people can start coming back to Marion.”