American Battery Technology Company (NASDAQ: ABAT) announced it successfully appealed the termination of its U.S. Department of Energy grant, resulting in the reinstatement of $115 million in federal funding for its Tonopah Flats Lithium Project commercial refinery.

The DOE grant was originally awarded in October 2022 to support construction of the first phase of a commercial-scale lithium refinery with initial capacity of 5,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide annually. The grant was terminated in October 2025 along with hundreds of other DOE grants, prompting the company to file an appeal the following day.

Following months of technical and commercial reviews through the DOE's Informal Dispute Resolution process, the department concluded that "recission of the termination notice and continuation of the project is warranted." The grant has been reinstated with no changes to funding amounts or technical milestones, with an updated schedule accounting for the review period.

"We are proud of our long-standing partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy," said CEO Ryan Melsert. "Of the hundreds of DOE grants terminated last Fall very few have been able to successfully appeal the decisions and have their contracts reinstated."

The Tonopah Flats project was previously selected by the White House's National Energy Dominance Council as a Priority Project for streamlined federal permitting in June 2025. A prefeasibility study published in October 2025 projected an after-tax net present value of $2.57 billion and internal rate of return of 21.8%.

The project has received federal support across multiple administrations, initially through a Trump Administration grant for demonstration facility development, followed by the Biden Administration grant for commercial scale construction.