Evolution Metals LLC and Welsbach Technology Metals Acquisition Corp Announce Filing of Registration Statement on Form S-4 Related to Proposed Business Combination
Chicago, IL, Nov. 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Welsbach Technology Metals Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: WTMA) and Evolution Metals LLC have announced they have filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Global concerns over critical metals and materials supply chain risks have escalated into the geopolitical and capital markets arenas. Responses to these concerns are focused on acquisitions of mining assets such as Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt and Rare Earths. Because of these responses, an increasing number of upstream critical mineral mining projects are being brought to the capital markets.
However, the primary risk to these supply chains stem from a lack of midstream processing capacity, and not a lack of upstream mineral availability. The midstream supply chain needs to be strengthened to process and produce batteries and magnets critical to sectors including, but not limited to, the automotive, aerospace, defense, healthcare, high tech, consumer electronics and appliances and renewable energy industries.
Without a rapid increase of processing capacity, the drive for new resource development will fail or will continue to contribute to the bottleneck in midstream processing capacity.
Evolution Metals LLC (“Evolution Metals”) has been focused on capturing and maximizing the strategic value and synergies derived from rapidly expanding the midstream processing capacities by identifying and expanding existing commercially proven manufacturing processes and technologies in the critical metals and materials midstream processing supply chain globally; with a focus on recycling end-of-life materials to generate key midstream feed materials; and by assembling a world class management team compiled of industry leading operators with dedication to continuously increasing the efficiency, reducing the costs, improving the quality control and maximizing the competitiveness of these capabilities by integrating cutting-edge robotics driven by artificial intelligence throughout its processing plants.
Such an application of ideas has not been commercially viable to date because existing commercially proven manufacturing processes and technologies are currently small scale and fragmented globally which limits access to growth capital. To significantly strengthen the critical metals and materials supply chain, these manufacturing processes and technologies need to be consolidated, integrated, managed with expertise and expanded with rapid deployment of growth capital.
“We look forward to fulfilling our mandated mission to complete an acquisition in the technology metals and energy transition materials industry.” noted Daniel Mamadou, CEO of WTMA.
“We are extremely excited for Evolution Metals & Technologies to become the first fully integrated critical metals and materials global supply chain that is not reliant on Chinese producers, pursuant to the merger between Evolution Metals and WTMA” remarked David Wilcox, Founder of Evolution Metals and incoming Executive Chairman of Evolution Metals & Technologies Corp. (“EM&T”, the “Company” or “New EM”), the surviving entity from the merger. “As the world transitions to electrify its global vehicle fleet and significantly increases capacity in energy storage solutions, our world needs an independent and sustainable critical metals and materials supply chain with significantly increased capacities in the midstream and downstream to support sectors including, but not limited to, the automotive, aerospace, defense, healthcare, high tech, consumer electronics and appliances, and renewable energy industries. EM&T is uniquely positioned globally to fulfill this mission.”
“Neodymium and praseodymium are key rare earth elements required for the manufacturing of magnets. Through this proposed business combination with EM&T, we also honor the memory of Carl Auer von Welsbach, who discovered these two elements in 1885” said Daniel Mamadou, CEO of WTMA, “more importantly, with its capital base, its management talent and proven technologies, Evolution Metals & Technologies is a credible contender to take on the challenge of creating an independent supply chain in critical metals and materials.”
The risk profile of the current global supply chain in critical metals and materials presents unique and sizeable challenges:
- China’s dominance over battery and magnet metals and other critical metals and materials supply chains: as a major share of the mid and down-stream parts of the battery material and rare earth supply chain are located inside China, the rest of the World faces a high dependency on Chinese exports, which equates to a vulnerability of supply as well as a single point of failure in the global supply chain for critical metals and materials.
- Strategic leverage of the industries that need permanent magnets: the rare earth supply chain and the products that require magnets represent trillions of dollars in advanced technology sectors including, but not limited to, the automotive, aerospace, defense, healthcare, high tech, consumer electronics and appliances and renewable energy sectors.
- Market Control: Chinese producers influence prices within the global markets for battery materials and rare earths, making it difficult for new entrants to compete economically with China’s pricing power; this has hindered the development of alternative supply chain businesses historically.
EM&T will achieve its mission by acquiring controlling interests in five entities (collectively, the “Operating Companies”) within the critical metals and materials global supply chain. The five Operating Companies provide a foundation for EM&T’s expansion, with the following key advantages:
- Secure, High Quality, Reliable Supply for Customers: The Operating Companies have the capacity and sourcing as an integrated supply chain to reliably provide customers with consistent quality products. The Operating Companies and their management teams have established long-term customer relationships with key industrial players, including SK, Samsung, Ford, GM and Hyundai, among others in industries including, but not limited to, the automotive, aerospace, defense, healthcare, high tech, consumer electronics and appliances, and renewable energy sectors. We expect to expand our network of strategic partnerships to secure and diversify stable supply chains and mitigate risks.
- EM&T has ambitions to develop a consolidated end of life recycling facility for batteries and e-scrap which will be the largest such facility in the world: Critical Mineral Recovery, Inc. (“CMR”), one of the Operating Companies, had previously operated the world’s largest (that we know of) lithium-ion battery recycling facility, located in the United States. With the proceeds of this merger, the Company intends to re-build its lithium-ion battery recycling capacity; add new capacity for the recycling of e-scrap into feed materials to be granulated into
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