August 9, 2024: Aqua Metals, the US hydrometallurgical recycling company, announced on August 5 that it was anticipating a need for “additional funding” when presenting its Q2 results. It said that a major funding package had been cancelled and the schedule for commissioning of its Sierra Arc recycling plant was slipping from 2024 and would now happen in 2025. It also reported a loss of $5.6 million over the quarter.

This prompted an immediate collapse in its share price from 0.29 cents to 0.18 cents. As of going to press, the stock is trading at 0.19 cents. A year ago the shares were trading at $1.25.

This is a far cry from Aqua Metals’ IPO launch price in 2015 and its peak in 2017 of around $19 a share.

This May the company had said that an up-to- $33 million secured funding was on the cards.

However, Aqua Metals said in its Q2 announcement that it had been “recently advised by the lender that it was suspending further activity with regard to the secured credit facility due to continued high interest rates and recent declines in the market price for lithium-ion minerals, including an over 25% drop in lithium carbonate pricing, since signing the term sheet.”

US interest rates have remained steady around 5.25% to 5.5% since July 2023. Analysts at the CME Group expect a small rate cut in September but no large drops are anticipated. Lithium carbonate prices have steadily fallen over 2024.

“These factors raised concerns on the part of the lender regarding the ability of Aqua Metals to meet the lender’s proposed debt service covenants,” said the Aqua Metals statement.