R3 Announces Covington Operations Start — Commercial Lithium Production Is Still Targeted for Late Summer 2027

Update, Sept. 10, 2026: R3 Lithium has now formally announced the Covington, Georgia operations milestone this article was tracking. A Business Wire distribution index records an R3 release at 8:00 a.m. Sept. 10 titled “R3 Lithium Announces Initiation of Operations to Recover, Refine and Return Critical Minerals to the U.S. Battery Supply Chain.”¹ The announcement closes the company-announcement checkpoint; it does not by itself establish measured plant throughput or the start of continuous commercial lithium-carbonate production.

R3's current careers page still says the company is investing to bring continuous commercial lithium-carbonate production online.² The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sept. 8, based on direct comments from R3 CEO Linh Austin, that equipment upgrades were underway ahead of commercial production and that Austin expected commercial production in late summer 2027.³ That remains a forward-looking target, not a guaranteed production date.

Correction — Sept. 9, 2026: An earlier version did not clearly distinguish the Sept. 10 startup/operations milestone from continuous commercial lithium-carbonate production. The article was corrected after newer reporting from Austin placed commercial production in late summer 2027 and advance-release reporting described Sept. 10 as an operations/startup milestone rather than full-volume production.⁴³

Correction — Sept. 4, 2026: An earlier version did not include the bankruptcy court's later confirmation-order disposition. The previously verified court record shows the order overruled remaining confirmation objections while separately preserving governmental regulatory authority and applicable non-bankruptcy-law requirements.⁵ That court action does not itself establish transfer of the historical Georgia variance or R3's current state authorization.

What the Sept. 10 milestone establishes

R3's current product pages describe the Covington facility as producing black mass, lithium carbonate and concentrated metal oxide. The company also says its feedstock portfolio supports keeping its shredding and lithium-production lines running at capacity and says it has executed offtake agreements.⁶ Those are R3's current company-controlled descriptions; they are not independent measurements of Sept. 10 utilization, output or shipments.

Resource Recycling reported Sept. 4, citing a named interview with Austin, that the site was set to begin operations Sept. 10 and that additional investment was needed to bring it to continuous commercial operation.⁷ That report described 30,000 metric tons per year of shredding capacity and a 2,500-metric-ton-per-year lithium-carbonate line.⁷ Those figures describe reported capacity, not material actually processed or produced on Sept. 10.

The distinction matters because the public signals describe different operating stages. R3 can announce initiation of operations while still investing toward continuous commercial lithium-carbonate production. The sources reviewed for this update do not provide an independently measured Sept. 10 throughput figure.¹⁶²⁷³

The Georgia regulatory question remains separate

The Sept. 10 operations announcement does not resolve the separate question of R3's current Georgia environmental authorization. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division's Land Protection Branch public-announcements page reviewed Sept. 10 did not surface a new R3/Covington variance, permit-transfer or comparable notice in the visible listings.⁸ That is a bounded review of one current public surface. It does not establish that R3 lacks authorization, that no other agency action exists, or that the company is operating unlawfully.

Georgia EPD's historical public notice shows that the Covington operation was subject to a hazardous-secondary-material variance process under Ascend Elements.⁹ The bankruptcy record previously verified by the newsroom records a dispute over the variance during Ascend's case. The later confirmation order overruled remaining confirmation objections while separately preserving governmental police and regulatory authority and applicable non-bankruptcy-law requirements for governmental interests.⁵ It does not, on its face, establish that the historical variance transferred to R3 or otherwise determine the site's current Georgia authorization.

The next facts that would materially change the picture are concrete ones: measured output or customer shipments after the Sept. 10 operations-initiation announcement, a verified continuous-commercial-production milestone or change to Austin's late-summer-2027 target, or a direct current Georgia record clarifying the site's authorization status.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Business Wire distribution metadata for “R3 Lithium Announces Initiation of Operations to Recover, Refine and Return Critical Minerals to the U.S. Battery Supply Chain” — Business Wire listing as reproduced in ADVFN's current wire index, Sept. 10, 2026, 8:00 a.m.; reviewed Sept. 10, 2026. https://mx.advfn.com/p.php?btn=&last_ts=1789084799&old_sources=RN&old_symbol=&p_count=29&p_n=10&p_ts=1789045200&pid=news&symbol= Establishes the existence, time and title of the distributed release. The direct Business Wire article body did not surface in the research run, so this source is not used for undisplayed body claims. ↩ ↩²

2. R3 Lithium careers page — R3 Lithium, reviewed Sept. 10, 2026. https://www.r3lithium.com/careers Interested-party current source saying R3 is investing to bring continuous commercial lithium-carbonate production online and is scaling previously demonstrated production. It does not guarantee a production date. ↩ ↩²

3. “Battery material recycling plant outside Atlanta to restart under new owners” — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Drew Kann, Sept. 8, 2026. https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/09/r3-lithium-to-restart-former-ascend-elements-battery-material-recycling-factory-east-of-atlanta/ Original reporting based on direct comments from Linh Austin; establishes Austin's statement that equipment upgrades precede commercial production and his late-summer-2027 commercial-production target. The timing is forward-looking. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. “What Lithium EV Battery Shortage? New Recycler Picks Up Where Ascend Elements Left Off” — CleanTechnica, Tina Casey, Sept. 8, 2026. https://cleantechnica.com/2026/09/08/r3-lithium-ev-battery-recycling-us-supply-chain/ CleanTechnica says R3 supplied it the Sept. 10 release in advance and characterized the milestone as a startup/operations announcement, with full-volume operation expected later. Company-release substance remains interested-party material and future timing is not a guarantee. ↩

5. Ascend Elements bankruptcy record, Dockets 650 and 659 — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas / Verita Global, filed/entered Aug. 16-17, 2026; previously directly verified in newsroom research. https://veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260816000000000006 and https://www.veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260817000000000007 Supports the recorded variance-transfer dispute and the later confirmation order's disposition and preservation of governmental regulatory authority/non-bankruptcy-law requirements. A fresh direct refetch during the Sept. 10 research run returned an upstream 502, so no new court-document language is inferred from that failed fetch. ↩ ↩²

6. R3 Lithium current homepage and product pages — R3 Lithium, reviewed Sept. 10, 2026. https://www.r3lithium.com/ and https://www.r3lithium.com/product Interested-party current sources for the company's facility/product descriptions, 30,000-metric-ton processing capability, executed-offtake language and running at capacity wording. They do not independently measure current utilization, output or shipments. ↩ ↩²

7. “R3 Lithium launches pioneering mineral processing facility” — Resource Recycling / E-Scrap, Paul Lane, Sept. 4, 2026. https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2026/09/04/r3-lithium-launches-pioneering-mineral-processing-facility/ Original reporting based on a named interview with R3 CEO Linh Austin; establishes the reported Sept. 10 operating plan, need for further investment toward continuous commercial operation and the reported 30,000-t/year shredding and 2,500-t/year lithium-line capacities. It does not prove Sept. 10 throughput. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Land Protection Branch Public Announcements — Georgia Environmental Protection Division, reviewed Sept. 10, 2026. https://epd.georgia.gov/public-announcements-0/land-protection-branch-public-announcements Supports only the bounded statement about what was visible on that public-announcements surface when reviewed. It is not proof of R3's overall authorization status or the absence of other agency action. ↩

9. “Public Notice: Intent to Approve Variance for Ascend Elements Inc.” — Georgia Environmental Protection Division, 2022; rechecked Sept. 10, 2026. https://epd.georgia.gov/document/pdf/public-notice-ascend-elements-proposed-variancepdf/download Historical primary evidence of the Ascend-era variance framework. It does not establish R3's current authorization. ↩