R3 Targets Sept. 10 Restart for Ascend’s Georgia Lithium Plant — Public Record Leaves a Variance Dispute Unresolved

Resource Recycling reported Sept. 4, citing R3 Lithium CEO Linh Austin, that R3 plans to begin operations Sept. 10 at the Covington, Georgia battery-recycling and lithium-recovery facility it acquired from Ascend Elements.¹ The date is a company operating plan reported through a named interview, not an independently observed restart.

The facility itself is not new.² Bankruptcy records show R3 was designated the successful bidder for Ascend's Covington assets after no other qualified bid was received, and the court approved the sale on June 30.³⁴

The ownership change also carries a disputed regulatory history. In an Aug. 16 bankruptcy filing, Ascend's debtors alleged that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division had not transferred an existing hazardous-secondary-material variance to R3 as contemplated by the debtors' reading of the sale order. The same filing records Georgia EPD's contrary position that the sale order and asset-purchase agreement conflicted with Georgia law.⁵ R3 filed a joinder supporting the debtors' position and asking the court to overrule Georgia EPD's plan objection.⁶

The bankruptcy court then entered Docket 659 on Aug. 17, confirming the liquidation plan and stating that confirmation objections not withdrawn, waived, resolved or settled were overruled on the merits.⁷ That later order is part of the court posture. It does not, on its face, establish that Georgia transferred the variance, issued a replacement permit or variance, or otherwise resolved R3's current state environmental authorization.⁸⁷

Correction — Sept. 4, 2026: An earlier version said R3's joinder established only its litigation position and that the public-record review did not locate a later order resolving the issue. Docket 659 is a later, directly relevant order: it confirmed the plan and overruled remaining confirmation objections on the merits. The article has been corrected to include that court disposition while preserving the separate, unresolved question of current Georgia variance/permit status.⁷

R3 bought an existing lithium-recovery asset

Court records describe the Covington transaction as roughly $3 million in cash consideration, plus specified assumed liabilities and cure-cost treatment.³⁴

Ascend said in September 2025 that it had operated a commercial-scale lithium-recovery line at Covington the prior month with 3,000 metric tons per year of stated capacity and had produced recycled lithium carbonate from black mass at greater than 99% purity.² Those are Ascend's historical company claims; they do not establish R3's current utilization, output or shipment volume.

Together, the sale records and Ascend's earlier operating disclosure show R3 acquired an existing battery-processing site rather than a new greenfield project.³⁴² On the sourced record, Sept. 10 is therefore a planned restart under a new owner, not the first commissioning of the Covington line.¹²

What the Georgia variance dispute actually establishes

Georgia EPD's older public record confirms that Ascend's Covington operation was subject to a variance process involving the classification of certain hazardous secondary materials.⁹ It does not, by itself, establish R3's current authorization status.

The Aug. 16 debtor filing says the Covington sale order contemplated transfer of the existing variance to R3 while R3 and Georgia EPD determined whether a variance, permit or neither would ultimately be required. The debtors alleged that Georgia EPD had not completed that transfer. The filing also records Georgia EPD's objection to the debtors' interpretation and notes that government police and regulatory authority remained preserved.⁵

R3's Aug. 16 joinder asked the bankruptcy court to overrule Georgia EPD's plan objection for the reasons stated by the debtors.⁶ The court's Aug. 17 confirmation order then overruled remaining confirmation objections on the merits.⁷ That is a material judicial disposition of the confirmation objection; it should not be described as though the court never acted on R3's request.

The same confirmation order preserves governmental police and regulatory authority and says governmental interests including permits and licenses are not transferred without compliance with applicable non-bankruptcy law.⁷ A review of the public Georgia EPD surfaces through Sept. 4 did not independently establish a later variance-transfer notice, permit notice or comparable state record resolving R3's current authorization status.⁸ That is a time-bounded public-record finding, not proof that no authorization, administrative action or nonpublic agreement exists.

For now, the relevant facts remain distinct: R3's Sept. 10 operating target comes from a named CEO interview reported by Resource Recycling; the bankruptcy court confirmed the plan and overruled remaining confirmation objections; and the public state record reviewed here does not establish the site's current variance/permit path.¹⁸⁷ The next meaningful checkpoints are direct confirmation that operations have begun and a primary Georgia record clarifying the site's current regulatory status.

Sources

Footnotes

1. “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/ Named interview with R3 CEO Linh Austin; establishes the reported Sept. 10 operating plan. Company-specific operating claims remain attributed. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. “Ascend Elements Produces Recycled Lithium Carbonate from Used Li-ion Batteries for First Time at Commercial Scale” — Ascend Elements, Sept. 3, 2025. https://ascendelements.com/ascend-elements-produces-recycled-lithium-carbonate/ Interested-party source for Ascend's historical 3,000-metric-ton-per-year line and greater-than-99% purity claims. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Notice designating R3 Lithium as successful bidder for Covington assets — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas / Verita Global, filed June 20, 2026. https://www.veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260620000000000001 Establishes the successful-bidder process and transaction terms; does not establish later operations or regulatory compliance. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Ascend Elements Chapter 11 filing recounting Covington sale terms — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas / Verita Global, Aug. 7, 2026. https://veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260807000000000002 Establishes the June 30 sale approval and transaction chronology. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Debtors' Memorandum of Law in Support of Final Approval and Confirmation, Docket 650 — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas / Verita Global, filed Aug. 16, 2026. https://veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260816000000000006 Establishes the debtors' allegations and the Georgia EPD position recorded in the filing; it does not independently establish the current Georgia regulatory status. ↩ ↩²

6. Joinder of R3 Lithium, Inc. to the Debtors' Memorandum, Docket 651 — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas / Verita Global, filed Aug. 16, 2026. https://veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260816000000000007 Establishes that R3 asked the court to overrule Georgia EPD's confirmation objection; read with Docket 659 for the later court disposition. ↩ ↩²

7. Order Granting Final Approval of Disclosure Statement and Confirming the Combined Disclosure Statement and Plan of Liquidation of Ascend Elements, Inc., et al., Docket 659 — U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas / Verita Global, entered Aug. 17, 2026. https://www.veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/2690440260817000000000007 Establishes plan confirmation and the order's statement that remaining confirmation objections were overruled on the merits; also preserves governmental police/regulatory authority and applicable non-bankruptcy-law requirements for governmental interests. It does not itself establish transfer of the variance or R3's current Georgia authorization status. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. Current Ascend case docket and Georgia EPD public-surface review — Verita Global / Georgia Environmental Protection Division, reviewed through Sept. 4, 2026. https://www.veritaglobal.net/ascend/document/list and https://epd.georgia.gov/ Supports only the bounded statement that the reviewed state public surfaces did not independently establish a current R3 variance/permit resolution; publication or indexing may lag and other administrative action may exist. ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Public Notice — Request for a Variance from Classifying Certain Hazardous Secondary Materials as a Solid Waste, Ascend Elements, Covington — Georgia Environmental Protection Division, 2022. https://epd.georgia.gov/document/pdf/public-notice-ascend-elements-proposed-variancepdf/download Historical evidence of the Ascend-era variance framework; does not establish R3's current status. ↩