03/28/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/28/2024 14:19
Company successfully executed and closed $150 million tax exempt bond offering for the Company's Kentucky Lithium refining facility
The first domestic, commercial producer of separated and high-purity REEs from recycled permanent magnets and high-purity battery elements from both ores and recycled feedstocks
Company's patented chromatographic separation and purification process defining itself as the world-leading critical mineral refining technology
Establishing first-of-their-kind partnerships pioneering full circular solutions for both rare earth elements and critical battery elements
Strong balance sheet provides financial strength and flexibility to execute on its innovation, collaboration and growth plans
Company to host update conference call today at 4:30 PM ET
FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / March 28, 2024 / American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC ) ("American Resources" or the "Company"), a next generation and socially responsible supplier of rare earth and critical elements, carbon and advanced carbon materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace, today announced financial results for the full year ended December 31, 2023. The Company will host a conference call and webcast, today, March 28, 2024, at 4:30 PM ET (details below).
Mark Jensen, Chairman and CEO of American Resources Corporation commented, "Over the past year, we continued to see tremendous success in establishing our strategic positioning within the value chain of our addressable markets. Our strategic focus has been to position and prepare our business for growth as separate, standalone companies, and we have been putting the pieces in place to execute on that plan as we have previously discussed, and which is consistent with our Strategic Committee's plan of action to better unlock the value of American Resources. These steps include securing the appropriate growth capital to scale operations while also building word-class teams around each business. Our growth capital for American Carbon is largely supported by the closing of the previously announced tax-exempt bond offering for Wyoming County Coal (WCC), and we believe that complex will be a first class facility producing premium mid vol carbon for the global steel markets. Development of the WCC complex continues to progress and we are confident we will be producing from its first deep mine later this year as we continue to assess longer term options for our carbon platform, such as sales, leases, production and joint venture partnerships. Nonetheless, advancing WCC's development put the entire carbon platform is a much stronger position as one of the last U.S.-based metallurgical carbon growth platforms. Additionally, we very recently closed on a successful $150 million tax-exempt bond offering to fund the development of our Kentucky Lithium refining facility. It is becoming more evident that ReElement Technologies continues to separate itself as the most efficient critical mineral refining platform in the world. The critical and rare earth elements we refine today are imperative to operate our modern-day technology including electric vehicles, clean energy and defense applications. Our ability to produce a variety of ultra-pure, critical mineral products in a low-cost and environmentally safe commercial scale has put us in a unique position across several supply chains. As we continue to aggressively advance our platform technology and collaborate with partners, it is becoming more evident that we are the most efficient solution for the deployment of sustainable critical mineral refining outside of China. We continue to quietly position American Metals as an aggregator and processor of recycled feedstocks to feed into ReElement. American Metals is in a unique position to leverage ReElements advanced refining capabilities to handle the preprocessing step of end-of-life or off-spec batteries and magnets which also will enhance ReElements long-term margin profile. Lastly, as we continue to execute on our strategic plan, American Resource will continue to evolve by leveraging the unique capabilities and positioning of our current operating companies to diversify into other critical mineral and infrastructure resources to support energy transition and national security interests, similar to American Carbon's recent acquisition of a 51% interest in an iron ore and titanium resource deposit."
Key Division Highlights
The Company continues to aggressively drive innovative, efficient and solution-based steps to strengthen its position within its respective end-markets while strategically evolving to enhance shareholder value. Recent divisional milestones include:
ReElement Technologies
American Carbon
Corporate
"Looking forward to the remainder of 2024, our belief in and the excitement over the opportunities we have in front of us continues to reach an all-time high. Our goal is to successfully spin-off both ReElement Technologies and American Carbon this year with the appropriate value, capital structures and teams to execute as standalone businesses, and we feel confident we will accomplish that goal," continued Mr. Jensen.
"The opportunity for ReElement Technologies continues to manifest at a very rapid pace both domestically and internationally and continue to be bolstered by our tremendous team and growing partnerships. The unique attributes of our technology puts us in a lead position to successfully deploy meaningful critical mineral refining capacity outside of China. It has always been our approach that utilizing the similar, solvent-based separation and purification technologies, as used in China, will be a challenge for most of the developed world and we are starting to see those challenges manifest from an operational, cost and environmental perspective. As such, we believe we stand alone in our ability to produce ultra-pure products at large scale, and in an environmentally-safe and cost competitive process. This has enabled us to advanced our focus on customer qualifications across multiple supply chains, procuring appropriate feedstocks to feed our large-scale projects, securing offtake agreements with both planned magnet, cathode / battery manufacturers and designing and engineering our planned large-scale, commercial facilities. Our rapid execution of this tremendous growth opportunity is evidenced by the technical expertise at our Noblesville, Indiana Commercial Qualification Plant, the acquisition of our Marion, Indiana super-site, the procurement of approximately $45 million in tax incentives from the municipality of Marion, and the successful execution of a bond purchase agreement for $150 million of Kentucky Industrial Building Revenue Bonds for our first-of-its-kind Kentucky Lithium refinery, to name a few. Additionally, our international growth plans are substantial, especially with unlocking the value of certain African regions, to support a massive shift in global trade and manufacturing. ReElement sits in a very opportunistic position at the intersection of energy transition and national security and we remain steadfast on executing smartly yet swiftly to build substantial value for our Company, shareholders and stakeholders a like."
Expected Near-Term Catalysts
Conference Call Information
American Resources management will host a conference call for investors, analysts and other interested parties today, Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 4:30 PM ET.
Interested participants and investors may access the conference call by dialing 877-407-4019 and referencing American Resources Corporation's Fourth Quarter and Year End 2023 Conference Call, or by the webcast link: here.
Financial Results for the Year-Ending December 31, 2023
For the full year of 2023, American Resources reported a net income loss of $11.2 million or a loss of $0.15 per share for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, as compared with a net income loss $1.45 million or loss of $0.02 per share for the full year of 2022. The Company earned an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, accretion on asset retirement obligations, non-operating expenses and non-cash impairment loss ('adjusted EBITDA") of $6.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, as compared with earning adjusted EBITDA of $6.5 million in 2022.
Full Year 2023 Summary
Full year 2023 revenues were $16.7 million compared to full year 2022 revenues of $39.5 million. The Company's annual decline in revenue was attributed to a shift in prioritizing its use of capital towards accelerating its ReElement Technologies division to position it for accelerated growth and in preparation for its planned spin-off into a standalone company, while securing and beginning to deploy its growth capital for its American Carbon division, supported by its $45 million tax exempt bond it closed to develop its WCC complex and preparing American Carbon for its planned spin-off into a standalone company. Development costs during 2023 were $11.7 million compared to $28.1 million during 2022 and better positions the Company within the markets in which it serves and to meet growing demand.
The Company did not incur any income tax expense in 2023 as it was able to utilize its available net operating losses ("NOL") carried forward from prior periods of approximately $25.7 million as of December 31, 2023.
AMERICAN RESOURCES CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||
2023 | 2022 | |||||||
Revenue
|
||||||||
Coal sales
|
$ | 16,120,841 | $ | 39,103,995 | ||||
Metal recovery and sales
|
66,552 | 48,199 | ||||||
Royalty income
|
556,682 | 322,075 | ||||||
Total revenue
|
16,744,075 | 39,474,269 | ||||||
Operating expenses (income)
|
||||||||
Cost of coal sales and processing
|
11,611,886 | 21,687,656 | ||||||
Accretion
|
993,165 | 1,344,047 | ||||||
Depreciation
|
46,953 | 2,157,763 | ||||||
Amortization of mining rights
|
1,240,914 | 1,238,449 | ||||||
General and administrative
|
7,013,833 | 4,020,464 | ||||||
Professional fees
|
1,340,745 | 1,103,322 | ||||||
Production taxes and royalties
|
2,647,655 | 3,785,049 | ||||||
Gain on sale of equipment
|
(8,475,468 | ) | (4,510,043 | ) | ||||
Development
|
11,746,725 | 28,134,883 | ||||||
Total operating expenses
|
28,166,408 | 58,961,590 | ||||||
Net loss from operations
|
(11,422,333 | ) | (19,487,321 | ) | ||||
Other income (expense)
|
||||||||
Other income and (expense)
|
677,045 | 317,045 | ||||||
Unrealized gain on short-term investments
|
499,639 | - | ||||||
Gain on cancelation of debt
|
- | 3,119,775 | ||||||
Gain on sales of patents
|
- | 16,000,000 | ||||||
Interest income
|
381,324 | 30,982 | ||||||
Interest expense
|
(1,336,997 | ) | (1,426,153 | ) | ||||
Total other income (expenses)
|
221,011 | 18,041,649 | ||||||
Net loss
|
$ | (11,201,322 | ) | $ | (1,445,672 | ) | ||
Net loss per share - basic
|
$ | (0.15 | ) | $ | (0.02 | ) | ||
Weighted average shares outstanding - basic
|
75,422,390 | 66,777,620 |
AMERICAN RESOURCES CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
December 31, | December 31, | |||||||
2023 | 2022 | |||||||
Assets
|
||||||||
Current assets:
|
||||||||
Cash
|
$ | 2,494,048 | $ | 10,873,432 | ||||
Accounts receivable
|
253,764 | 660,755 | ||||||
Short-term investments
|
28,039,497 | - | ||||||
Inventories
|
54,000 | 446,690 | ||||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets
|
1,867,651 | 786,576 | ||||||
Total Current Assets
|
32,708,960 | 12,767,453 | ||||||
Cash - restricted
|
6,798,029 | 2,122,263 | ||||||
Property and Equipment, net
|
15,337,004 | 9,113,722 | ||||||
Right-of-use assets, net
|
18,276,913 | 13,033,889 | ||||||
Investment in LLC- Related Party
|
18,780,000 | 18,780,000 | ||||||
Notes receivables
|
99,022 | 99,022 | ||||||
Total Assets
|
$ | 91,999,928 | $ | 55,916,349 | ||||
Liabilities And Equity
|
||||||||
Current liabilities:
|
||||||||
Trade payables
|
$ | 6,709,224 | $ | 4,916,243 | ||||
Non-trade payables
|
2,607,942 | 2,524,243 | ||||||
Accounts payable - related party
|
2,371,697 | 4,295,232 | ||||||
Accrued interest
|
512,558 | 106,886 | ||||||
Other Liabilities
|
200,000 | - | ||||||
Current portion of long term debt
|
804,656 | 1,917,506 | ||||||
Current portion of convertible debt
|
- | 9,787,423 | ||||||
Operating lease liabilities
|
57,663 | 82,669 | ||||||
Finance lease liabilities
|
4,806,822 | 3,803,175 | ||||||
Total current liabilities
|
18,070,562 | 27,433,377 | ||||||
Remediation liability
|
21,288,799 | 20,295,634 | ||||||
Bond payable, net
|
44,152,500 | - | ||||||
Operating lease liabilities, non-current
|
495,611 | 547,667 | ||||||
Finance lease liabilities, non-current
|
7,514,848 | 7,354,975 | ||||||
Total liabilities
|
91,522,320 | 55,631,653 | ||||||
Commitments and contingencies (Note 8)
|
||||||||
Stockholders' deficit:
|
||||||||
Common stock, $0.0001 par value; 230,000,000 shares authorized, 892.044 and 0 shares issued and outstanding
|
7,627 | 6,680 | ||||||
Additional paid-in capital
|
178,910,546 | 167,517,259 | ||||||
Accumulated deficit
|
(178,440,565 | ) | (167,239,243 | ) | ||||
Total stockholders' deficit
|
477,608 | 284,696 | ||||||
Total liabilities and stockholders' deficit
|
$ | 91,999,928 | $ | 55,916,349 |
AMERICAN RESOURCES CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
For the Year Ended
December 31
|
||||||||
2023 | 2022 | |||||||
Cash Flows from Operating activities:
|
||||||||
Net loss
|
$ | (11,201,322 | ) | $ | (1,445,672 | ) | ||
Adjustments to reconcile net income loss) to net cash
|
||||||||
Depreciation expense
|
46,953 | 2,157,763 | ||||||
Amortization of mining rights
|
1,240,914 | 1,238,449 | ||||||
Accretion expense
|
993,165 | 1,344,047 | ||||||
Amortization of right-to-use assets
|
626,253 | 128,926 | ||||||
Accretion of right-to-use assets
|
64,386 | 73,475 | ||||||
Amortization of issuance costs and debt discount
|
52,500 | - | ||||||
Option Expense
|
1,506,292 | 1,742,145 | ||||||
Gain on sale of equipment
|
(8,475,468 | ) | (4,510,043 | ) | ||||
Unrealized gain on short-term investments
|
(499,639 | ) | (9,562 | ) | ||||
Gain on debt forgiveness
|
- | (3,046,062 | ) | |||||
Issuance of common shares for services
|
100,000 | 38,800 | ||||||
Change in current assets and liabilities:
|
||||||||
Accounts receivable
|
406,991 | 2,514,880 | ||||||
Inventories
|
392,690 | (446,690 | ) | |||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets
|
(1,081,075 | ) | (161,971 | ) | ||||
Accounts payable
|
1,876,680 | 2,428,974 | ||||||
Accrued interest
|
406,191 | 363,684 | ||||||
Accounts payable related party
|
(1,923,535 | ) | 293,516 | |||||
Right of use assets
|
752,783 | (165,032 | ) | |||||
Other Liabilities
|
200,000 | - | ||||||
Cash provided by operating activities
|
(14,515,241 | ) | 2,549,189 | |||||
Cash Flows from Investing activities:
|
||||||||
Purchases of short-term investments
|
(51,865,545 | ) | - | |||||
Proceeds from sales and maturities of short-term investments
|
24,325,687 | - | ||||||
Cash received (paid) for PPE, net
|
964,319 | 16,908,129 | ||||||
Cash invested in note receivable
|
- | 250,978 | ||||||
Investment in LLCs
|
- | (18,284,866 | ) | |||||
Cash used in investing activities
|
(26,575,539 | ) | (1,125,759 | ) | ||||
Cash Flows from Financing activities:
|
||||||||
Repayments on long term debt
|
(1,112,850 | ) | (2,214,603 | ) | ||||
Proceeds from long term debt
|
- | 2,563,000 | ||||||
Cash used to repurchase shares
|
- | (93,435 | ) | |||||
Repayments of finance lease liabilities
|
(5,599,988 | ) | (1,270,810 | ) | ||||
Proceeds from tax exempt bonds, net
|
44,100,000 | - | ||||||
Cash provided by (used for) financing activities
|
37,387,162 | (1,015,848 | ) | |||||
Increase (decrease) in cash
|
(3,703,618 | ) | 407,582 | |||||
Cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash, beginning of period
|
12,995,695 | 12,588,113 | ||||||
Cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash, end of period
|
$ | 9,292,077 | $ | 12,995,695 |
Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures
Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA (1) to Amounts Reported Under U.S. GAAP
For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023 | For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022 | |||||||
Net Income
|
(11,201,322 | ) | (1,445,672 | ) | ||||
Interest & Other Expenses
|
1,336,997 | 1,426,153 | ||||||
Income Tax Expense
|
- | - | ||||||
Accretion Expense
|
993,165 | 1,344,047 | ||||||
Depreciation
|
46,953 | 2,157,763 | ||||||
Amortization of Mining Rights
|
1,240,914 | 1,238,449 | ||||||
Non-Cash Stock, Warrant & Option Comp. Expense
|
1,506,292 | 1,742,145 | ||||||
Total Adjustments
|
5,124,321 | 7,908,557 | ||||||
Adjusted EBITDA
|
(6,077,001 | ) | 6,462,885 |
About American Resources Corporation
American Resources Corporation is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market. The Company is focused on the extraction and processing of metallurgical carbon, an essential ingredient used in steelmaking, critical and rare earth minerals for the electrification market, and reprocessed metal to be recycled. American Resources has a growing portfolio of operations located in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.
American Resources has established a nimble, low-cost business model centered on growth, which provides a significant opportunity to scale its portfolio of assets to meet the growing global infrastructure and electrification markets while also continuing to acquire operations and significantly reduce their legacy industry risks. Its streamlined and efficient operations are able to maximize margins while reducing costs. For more information visit americanresourcescorp.com or connect with the Company on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn .
About ReElement Technologies LLC
ReElement Technologies LLC is redefining how critical and rare earth elements are both sourced and processed while focusing on the recycling of end-of-life products such as rare earth permanent magnets and lithium-ion batteries, as well as coal-based waste streams and byproducts to create a low-cost and environmentally-safe, circular supply chain. ReElement has developed its innovative and scalable "Capture-Process-Purify" process chain in conjunction with its licensed intellectual property including 16 patents and technologies and sponsored research partnerships with three leading universities to support the domestic supply chain's growing demand for magnet and battery metals. For more information visit reelementtech.com or connect with the Company on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn .
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond American Resources Corporation's control. The words "believes", "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", "continue", "seeks", "anticipates", "plans", "expects", "intends", "estimates", or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Any forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The Company cannot assure you that the projected results or events will be achieved.
Investor Contact:
JTC Team, LLC
Jenene Thomas
833-475-8247
[email protected]
RedChip Companies Inc.
Robert Foley
1-800-RED-CHIP (733-2447)
[email protected]
Company Contact:
Mark LaVerghetta
Vice President of Corporate Finance and Communications
317-855-9926 ext. 0
[email protected]
SOURCE: American Resources Corporation