Aqua Metals Suffers Significant Fire Damage
December 02 2019 - 12:06AM
Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) (“Aqua Metals” or the “Company”),
which is reinventing lead recycling with its AquaRefining™
technology, today announced that on Friday evening, November 29,
2019, a fire occurred in the AquaRefining area of the plant.
The fire took place in the evening and, fortunately, there were no
injuries as the building was vacant at the time. Local fire
authorities responded rapidly and extinguished the fire that
evening.
The cause of the fire is presently unknown and the Company is
working with the local authorities and other parties to investigate
the origin of ignition and root cause. The flames at one
point reached the upper roofline of the AquaRefinery area and
damaged the roof. The fire and related intense heat and smoke
caused significant damage to a material amount of equipment in the
AquaRefinery area, including all 16 AquaRefining modules, control
wiring and other supporting infrastructure. In addition,
approximately 1,600 gallons of AquaRefining concentrate was
released within the plant due to a tank succumbing to intense
heat. That concentrate, along with thousands of gallons of
water deployed to extinguish the fire, resulted in approximately 1
inch of liquid to spread throughout the entire plant and reached
the in-plant operational offices. Fortunately, this liquid
remains contained within the plant and the Company has already
deployed measures to recapture the liquid and begun placing it into
its water treatment plant and tanks. The floor to ceiling
firewall between the AquaRefining area and the rest of the plant
appears to have isolated most of the damage to the AquaRefining
area. The firewall also appears to have spared the key
front-end process equipment such as the battery breaker/separation
system, concentrate production area, kettles and ingot casting,
water treatment and recovery and other important areas of the
plant. The administrative office area also appears to have
remained intact.
Most of the power to the building will remain off until the
Company, utility provider and local regulators are confident that
it is safe to begin returning power. In the meantime,
generators have been deployed for various critical systems
including safety and security.
After initial damage assessments, the Company believes that it
will incur a material cost and experience a material delay in
operating any processes within the plant. Specifics on
timelines, costs and availability of insurance coverage will be
determined as we progress with inspections, assess damage and plan
accordingly. The Company, however, expects that the recovery
and rebuild of the AquaRefining area could take several months or
more. The Company has already been working closely to
coordinate recovery activities and plans with our supportive
Operations Management and Maintenance partner, Veolia.
“First, I am most thankful that this major event did not result
in any injuries. Second, I want to sincerely thank the Storey
County Fire Protection District, Reno Fire Department, Sparks Fire
Department, North Lyon County Fire Protection District, and Truckee
Meadows Fire Protection District for their rapid and effective
response which clearly greatly reduced the potential damage this
fire could have caused,” stated Steve Cotton, President and
CEO. “We have up to $50,000,000 in property casualty and
business continuity and loss of production coverages and we are
currently reviewing available insurance coverage. We will
pursue all available claims for insurance recovery to restore the
AquaRefinery to its pre-fire state and commencement of operations
of all 16 AquaRefining modules.”
As information develops, the Company will provide important
updates to keep everyone informed.
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d9ea701d-e70f-4c14-9692-c34779628ba3
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8931dd48-a36e-4058-aab9-bc9e758696b9
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/de2e23b0-f7e4-4d97-b6a3-c2a23f871db9
About Aqua Metals
Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQMS) is reinventing lead recycling
with its patented AquaRefining™ technology. Unlike smelting,
AquaRefining is a room temperature, water-based process that emits
less pollution. The modular systems are intended to allow the
Company to vastly reduce environmental impact and scale lead acid
recycling production capacity by licensing the AquaRefining
technology to partners. This could help to meet growing demand for
lead to power new applications including stop/start automobile
batteries which complement the vehicle’s main battery, lead acid
batteries which are in electric vehicles, Internet data centers,
alternative energy applications including solar, wind, and grid
scale storage. Aqua Metals is based in McCarran, NV, and has built
its first recycling facility in Nevada’s Tahoe Reno Industrial
Complex. To learn more, please visit www.aquametals.com.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking
statements concerning Aqua Metals, Inc. Forward-looking
statements include, but are not limited to our plans, objectives,
expectations and intentions and other statements that contain words
such as “expects,” “contemplates,” “anticipates,” “plans,”
“intends,” “believes” and variations of such words or similar
expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends, or
that do not relate to historical matters. The forward-looking
statements in this release include expectations for the Company’s
ability to recover from the fire damage incurred at the TRIC
facility and resume lead recycling operations, and the availability
of insurance to fund some or all of the recovery and related costs.
Those forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially. Among those factors are: (1) the risk that the
damages and costs relating to the fire at TRIC are substantially
greater than estimated as of the date of this release, (2) the risk
that the Company’s insurance policies may not cover all or a
significant amount of the cost of restoring TRIC to its pre-fire
state and resuming operations, (3) the risk that the Company may
not otherwise be able to fund the restoration of TRIC to its
pre-fire state and resume operations in the event that insurance
proceeds are unavailable or and (4) those other risks disclosed in
the section “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 12, 2019 and subsequent SEC
filings. Aqua Metals cautions readers not to place undue reliance
on any forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake,
and specifically disclaims any obligation, to update or revise such
statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as
they occur, except as required by law.
Contact: Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital(905)
326-1888, Ext. 1glen@bristolir.com
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