Aqua Metals, the US start-up which develops green lead recycling technology called AquaRefining™, says its total revenues for the second quarter of 2017 were just $603,000.
If the company’s own forecasts are to be believed, it is going to have to “go nuclear” to achieve the ‘explosive growth’ (US$100M-$120M) revenue predicted by Dr Stephen Clarke, the chairman and CEO of Aqua Metals, in a recent statement.
Earlier this year, Aqua Metals won a ‘big’ deal with lead-acid battery manufacturer Johnson Controls, which invested $10.6 million in the star-up when it purchased approximately 5% of the shares.
And the company has won significant prestigious awards in May – the San Francisco Business Times Technology and Innovation Award – the Platts Global Metals Award, presented by S&P Global Platts, for the Breakthrough Solution of the Year.
Following the certifications from the industry, Dr Clarke said in a recent conference call to investors that the goal for this year is to prepare “for an explosive build-out both of our own facilities and for our strategic partners”.
He added, to ensure that “explosive growth in 2018”, the firm may “temporarily suspend production” to “test and validate multiple potential improvements” on its facilities before rolling out the AquaRefining™ technology. And this probably accounts for low revenue for the second quarter.
The CEO noted the targets for its facility are 120 tonnes of lead a day by the end of the year and 160 from 300 tonnes of wasted batteries in 2018.
He calculated that an output of 120 to 160 tonnes a day represents “about $100 million to $120 million a year of revenue”.
The current plan, Clarke said, is “a smaller number of clusters centred on logistic nodes”. Five AquaRefineries with a total of 160 modules in place, he figured, could turn out 800 tonnes of lead a day. That, he said, would give Aqua Metals “a combined potential annual revenue of $500 million to $600 million a year”.
He also confirmed the company, which reported a loss of $4.9 million in its first quarter of 2017, has ditched its original plan to build a large number of small plants across the US that would turn out 40 to 80 tonnes of lead a day.