The American Pacific Borates Ltd (ASX: ABR) share price has bounded into the green during afternoon trade on Monday.
American Pacific shares are now exchanging hands up 17.96% at $1.66 apiece. This comes after the company made a key announcement regarding its integrated Boron facility in California.
Let's investigate further.
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But first – a quick recap on American Pacific Borates
American Pacific Borates is on the trail to become a "fully integrated producer of Boron specialty products and advanced materials". Boron is a key component in the transition to renewable energy, as it can store both chemical and electrical energy.
The company's major focus is on its 100% owned Fort Cady Boron facility in California, US.
At the time of writing, American Pacific Borates has a market capitalisation of $550 million.
What's up with the miner's share price today?
The company advised it is "exploring partner options" for "potential bi-product lithium production" at the site.
American Pacific announced it wants to exploit the current high prices that lithium is fetching in the markets as much as possible. They said this is one way to do it.
Aside from this, the company explained that the "improving economics" of other adjacent segments to lithium, such as direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies, is another compelling reason to "consider partner options" for its "bi-product lithium stream".
It stated that DLE technologies are "quickly improving to a point" where extracting lithium waste from the facility's waste stream "could be economic".
Regarding further ways to exploit its lithium waste stream, it said:
Importantly, there is also an opportunity to use the lithium produced to enhance some boron speciality applications currently under consideration including LiBor salts for lithium-ion batteries.
What's more, the company's decision-making here is supported by US Government policy, as per the release.
American Pacific Borates share price snapshot
The American Pacific Borates share price has had a choppy year so far. Year to date, American Pacific Borates shares have returned 10.66%.
Despite this, it has gained 107.5% over the last 12 months. And the miner's shares are 13% in the green over the last month.
These returns have outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)'s climb of around 25% over the past year.
