American Battery Technology Company has secured formal acceptance of its mine and refinery Plan of Operations from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the Tonopah Flats Lithium Project in central Nevada.

The milestone marks the culmination of more than four years of technical development, environmental baseline studies, and project planning at the site, which spans approximately 10,700 acres of public land in Esmeralda and Nye counties.

The project holds an estimated mineral resource of approximately 21.3 million metric tonnes of accessible lithium hydroxide monohydrate under SEC SK 1300 standards, including 2.7 million tonnes classified as proven or probable reserves. The mine and refinery design targets an output of up to 30,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate per year at full build-out, underpinned by an estimated 68-year mine life.

“The BLM's certification of our mine and refinery Plan of Operations as accepted is a major accomplishment by the ABTC team and a critical milestone in the construction and commercialization of our critical mineral Tonopah Flats Lithium Project,” stated Ryan Melsert, American Battery Technology Company CEO. “This milestone reflects years of technical development, environmental studies, and project planning by our team. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with federal, state, tribal, local, and community stakeholders as this project advances into an operating commercial scale critical mineral mine and refinery.”

— Ryan Melsert, American Battery Technology Company CEO

The Tonopah Flats project has been designated as a FAST-41 Priority Project for streamlined federal permitting. Funding support includes a $58 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, which the company successfully reinstated following an appeal in June 2026, alongside a $900 million Letter of Interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

In October 2025, American Battery Technology Company published a pre-feasibility study for Tonopah Flats indicating an after-tax net present value of $2.57 billion at an 8% discount rate, an internal rate of return of 21.8%, and a 7.5-year payback period.

Following the Plan of Operations acceptance, the next step in the federal review process requires publication of a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

Meanwhile, the company is advancing construction of the initial 5,000 tonnes per year processing train at the site.

Read the full announcement: American Battery Technology Company Achieves Major Milestone with U.S. BLM Acceptance of Plan of Operations for Tonopah Flats Lithium Project