ABTC Says It Is Storing Black Mass 18 Days Into New U.S. Sales Rule

Update, Sept. 15, 2026: This article originally published Aug. 26, one day before the federal black-mass sales directive took effect. American Battery Technology Company has now disclosed a post-effective operating response: CEO Ryan Melsert said the company is temporarily storing black mass at its facility while Commerce reviews its exception request.¹²

Melsert said on ABTC's Sept. 14 fiscal-year earnings call that Commerce had sent follow-up questions and requests for additional information, but that there was no formal response on the status of the exception request at that time. He also said ABTC continues selling other recycling byproducts and, for the short term, is storing its black-mass product onsite pending a conclusion with the directive.¹²

The call came 18 calendar days after the directive took effect Aug. 27.³¹ The reviewed public record does not disclose how much black mass ABTC is storing, its value, the site's storage capacity, or whether the storage has reduced recycling throughput.⁴¹²

The rule is active, but ABTC's relief outcome is still unresolved

The Bureau of Industry and Security's temporary directive requires U.S. persons selling covered lithium-ion-battery black mass to allocate 100% of monthly sales to U.S. persons and keep covered material physically in the United States unless BIS grants an adjustment, exception or other authorization. The rule is scheduled to run from Aug. 27, 2026 through Aug. 27, 2027.³

Companies can request adjustments or exceptions, and BIS can issue written interim relief through a DPAS temporary license while a request is pending. Filing a request does not itself suspend the domestic-sales requirement. BIS says it intends to respond to adjustment or exception requests within 14 days of receipt, but the rule does not frame that as a guaranteed deadline.³

That distinction matters for ABTC. The company's Sept. 14 Form 10-K says it submitted an exception request but cannot predict the outcome or timing.⁴ The reviewed public materials do not establish the exact date BIS received the request, so the 18-day period since the rule took effect cannot be used to claim Commerce missed its intended response target.

Melsert's statement that there was no formal response on the request's status at the time of the Sept. 14 call also does not establish that BIS denied relief or that no nonpublic interim authorization exists.³¹²

The affected product is financially important to ABTC

ABTC's Sept. 14 10-K says black-mass sales represent the majority of the company's total revenue and that substantially all of its current black-mass customers are outside the United States in OECD countries. The filing also repeats that ABTC has requested an exception from the new directive.⁴

That is the same commercial exposure that made the rule material before it took effect. On Aug. 20, ABTC warned that if it could not obtain workable relief and could not replace affected foreign sales, the change could materially affect revenue, financial condition, cash flow and its ability to fund operations and growth.⁵

The newer 10-K keeps that risk conditional rather than describing a present liquidity crisis. It reports $49.5 million in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, and management says existing cash plus anticipated product revenue is expected to fund operations for at least 12 months from issuance of the financial statements. The filing separately says additional financing may be needed to execute the company's broader growth plans.⁴

Storage does not mean the recycling plant has shut down

The most important operational change is narrower than a shutdown. Melsert said ABTC is continuing to sell other byproducts from its recycling operation while temporarily storing black mass.¹²

The public record reviewed for this update does not establish whether ABTC has sold any covered black mass to domestic buyers since Aug. 27, how quickly onsite inventory is changing, or whether the storage arrangement is affecting feedstock intake or processing volume.⁴¹²

This does not settle the broader U.S. refining-capacity question

The directive itself establishes a domestic-sales and physical-location requirement; it does not establish whether U.S. refiners can absorb all black mass redirected by the rule.³ ABTC's disclosure is likewise company-specific. It shows how one recycler with a substantially foreign current customer base says it is operating while its exception request remains unresolved, not that every recycler faces the same constraint or that domestic refining capacity is categorically insufficient.⁴¹²

That leaves the central next question more concrete than it was before the rule began: whether Commerce grants ABTC an exception, adjustment or temporary authorization — or whether the company develops a commercially workable U.S. sales channel for the affected material.

Sources

Footnotes

1. American Battery Technology Company FY2026 Financial Results webcast — American Battery Technology Company / Zoom Events, Sept. 14, 2026. https://events.zoom.us/ev/AonPOFB2BobuWXI6iARuwPj0LWpSeO2urQ7q49kNLToRgetiPSz0~AoFGCAM5jMKG7UZAcO4Kpz46DvUk-E_E7l5Z86ps5LYpkz1tCIYTVnrssA Official public company event establishing the provenance of CEO Ryan Melsert's Sept. 14 remarks. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. American Battery Technology Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript — MarketBeat transcript of ABTC's public Sept. 14, 2026 earnings call. https://www.marketbeat.com/earnings/reports/2026-9-14-american-battery-technology-stock/ Preserves Melsert's statements that Commerce sent follow-up questions and requests for information, that there was no formal response on the exception status at the time of the call, and that ABTC was temporarily storing black mass while continuing to sell other recycling byproducts. The transcript carrier is secondary; the statements are attributed to Melsert and the public company call. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. DPAS Directive Allocation Order and Additional Requirements for Recoverable Critical Minerals and Materials, 91 FR 50701 — U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security / Federal Register, Aug. 6, 2026; effective Aug. 27, 2026. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/06/2026-16078/dpas-directive-allocation-order-and-additional-requirements-for-recoverable-critical-minerals-and-materials Establishes the 100% domestic-sales allocation, physical-location requirement, adjustment/exception process, possible written interim relief, the rule that a request does not suspend compliance, and BIS's intended 14-day response target. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. American Battery Technology Company Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 — American Battery Technology Company / U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed Sept. 14, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1576873/000149315226042497/form10-k.htm Establishes ABTC's current black-mass revenue/customer exposure, exception request, conditional risk disclosure, $49.5 million cash balance, management liquidity statement and the limits of disclosed inventory detail. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. American Battery Technology Company Announces Highest Ever Gross Profit and Successful Appeal for Reinstatement of $57 Million US Department of Energy Grant in Fourth Quarter FY2026 Financial Results — American Battery Technology Company, Aug. 20, 2026. https://americanbatterytechnology.com/press-release/american-battery-technology-company-announces-highest-ever-gross-profit-and-successful-appeal-for-reinstatement-of-57-million-us-department-of-energy-grant-in-fourth-quarter-fy2026-financial-results/ Establishes the company's pre-effective disclosure of majority-revenue black-mass exposure, substantially foreign current customers, exception request and conditional risk warning. ↩