Missouri Cobalt LLC: Production, Backers, and Clean Water Lawsuit

Missouri Cobalt LLC is a mining and metals processing company operating at the former Madison Mine in Fredericktown, Missouri, where it is developing what it describes as the only vertically integrated cobalt and nickel production operation in North America.¹ Its parent rebranded from Missouri Cobalt Holdings to United States Strategic Metals, LLC (USSM) in February 2024, but the Missouri Cobalt subsidiary still operates under its original name. The project has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in financing and a Glencore offtake deal on one side, and a federal Clean Water Act lawsuit and organized local opposition on the other.

The Company and the Site

Missouri Cobalt operates on the grounds of the Madison County Mines, a Superfund site the EPA placed on the National Priorities List in 2003 after decades-old lead mining left soils, sediments, surface water, and groundwater contaminated with lead, arsenic, cobalt, copper, nickel, manganese, and other metals.²³ Missouri Mining Inc. (MMI) bought the property in 2018 with a commitment to clean it up and restart mining, and an affiliated remediation firm, Environmental Operations Inc., was tapped to handle the cleanup.⁴

Environmental Operations’ CEO, Stacy W. Hastie, recognized that the legacy tailings held commercially valuable cobalt, and Missouri Cobalt LLC was formed to extract it.⁵ In 2019 the company built a tailings processing facility on the site, and the EPA agreed to let it implement a cleanup plan while simultaneously mining cobalt from the property, citing its “vast reserves of a metal vital for use in electric vehicle batteries.”⁶ That July, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and U.S. Representative Jason Smith visited to promote the site as a model for the agency’s Superfund Redevelopment Initiative, with projections of 600 to 700 eventual jobs.⁴

The site covers more than 3,800 acres of mineral rights, and management estimates recoverable cobalt reserves at 35 million pounds.⁷

What the Company Plans to Produce

The business plan is vertical integration: extracting cobalt, nickel, copper, and lithium from an underground mine and legacy tailings, processing them onsite through a proprietary hydrometallurgical facility, and recycling lithium-ion battery “black mass” from scrap and end-of-life batteries.⁸

After full ramp-up, the company has cited annual production targets of 3,800 tonnes of cobalt, 21,000 tonnes of nickel, 6,400 tonnes of copper, and 16,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.⁷ It has separately said it plans to produce 11,000 tons of cobalt per year and employ roughly 1,700 people at full scale.⁵ A demonstration-scale hydrometallurgical pilot plant has been running since 2020, and a flotation concentrator is producing a mixed metal concentrate.⁹

As of mid-2025, the company employed about 55 people and had invested more than $265 million of roughly $400 million raised.⁹ It has said cobalt production will begin in the second quarter of 2026, with battery recycling operations starting roughly six months later, in early 2027. That is well behind earlier expectations. Appian Capital, the project’s lead lender, had indicated commissioning was expected in late 2024.¹⁰

Who Is Backing and Buying From the Project

In December 2023, Appian Capital Advisory committed a $230 million package: a $120 million secured term loan and a $70 million secured royalty financing with warrants, aimed at completing construction of the mine and processing facility.¹⁰ HPS Investment Partners has provided about $120 million in prior commitments, and HPS co-founder Mike Patterson sits on the USSM board alongside Willy Strothotte, the former chairman and CEO of Glencore.⁷ By late 2023 the company reported nearly $500 million in total funding and commitments.

The buyer side is largely locked in. In February 2024, USSM announced a long-term offtake agreement with Glencore covering 100% of the company’s planned output of cobalt and nickel sulfates, lithium products, and copper cathode, with a prepayment intended to speed construction.¹

USSM has also received a non-binding letter of interest from the U.S. Export-Import Bank for a potential $400 million debt package with a term of up to 15 years, pursued under EXIM’s China and Transformational Exports Program.¹¹ A letter of interest is a preliminary step. It precedes a formal application, due diligence, and underwriting, and no EXIM loan has been finalized.

The Clean Water Act Lawsuit and Permit Status

In January 2024, the U.S. government sued Environmental Operations Inc., Missouri Cobalt LLC, and Missouri Mining Investments LLC in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging Clean Water Act violations.¹² Reporting on the case said the government accused the operators of allowing cobalt, copper, lead, and nickel to discharge into a nearby creek through unauthorized channels.¹³

The parties entered alternative dispute resolution and reported in May 2025 that a settlement had been reached, but as of June 2026 no consent decree or settlement terms had been filed. A judge ordered the parties to file a proposed consent judgment or dismissal by September 22, 2026, warning that no further extensions would be granted.¹²

On the permitting side, Missouri Cobalt operates under a state water permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources with cobalt discharge limits that tighten over time. Interim limits in effect through June 2027 allow daily maximums of 1,103 micrograms per liter. Final limits taking effect in July 2027 drop to 220 micrograms per liter daily and 24 micrograms per liter as a monthly average.¹⁴ The permit acknowledges ongoing groundwater seepage from areas adjacent to tailings piles and requires the facility to dewater the mine to stop the seep “as soon as possible.”

A separate construction permit for the larger processing facility remains pending. As of early 2025, the DNR was waiting on further air quality information regarding cobalt before it could act.¹³

Community and Environmental Opposition

Legacy contamination at the Madison County site is well-documented. The EPA has identified cobalt as a contaminant of concern in soil, groundwater, surface water, solid waste, and sediment at the Catherine/Skaggs Piles area, with elevated lead, arsenic, and copper in other areas.³ In the 1990s, blood testing found that up to 15 percent of local children had elevated blood-lead levels, though the EPA has reported a subsequent decline.⁶

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment has urged the DNR to deny the pending air permit, citing risks from radioactive emissions, cancer-causing particles, and chemicals used in refining that can spread downstream and downwind of the site.¹⁵

Local concern has also been shaped by a nearby October 2024 fire at Critical Mineral Recovery, a separate lithium-ion battery recycling plant near Fredericktown, which produced a smoke plume large enough to prompt evacuation and shelter-in-place orders and led to lawsuits alleging respiratory problems, PTSD, and elevated heavy metal levels in residents’ blood.¹⁶¹³ Critical Mineral Recovery and USSM are not the same company, but their overlapping presence in the area has made them linked concerns for residents.

Who Runs the Company

Stacy W. Hastie, USSM’s CEO and a co-founder, built his career through Environmental Operations Inc., a brownfield remediation firm he has owned since buying out his partners in 2002. Before entering mining, his company handled cleanup work at sites including the River City Casino in Lemay, Missouri, and the Carondelet Coke site.¹⁷ He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in occupational safety and health from Murray State University.

Hastie’s record also includes a 1994 federal guilty plea for making a false statement to the U.S. government regarding asbestos worker certification, for which he served one year of probation and paid a $500 fine.¹⁷ Environmental Operations agreed to a $14,000 fine in Illinois in 2012 for illegal dumping of demolition debris, and as of that year was a defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging inadequate cleanup at a commercial development where unsafe methane levels were later detected. Hastie and his executives donated more than $200,000 to state and local political campaigns between 2007 and 2012.

Other named USSM leaders include Chief Financial Officer Allister Aaron and Commercial Director Michael Hollomon, who has described the company’s work as “bringing high-tech green jobs to the middle of Missouri.”⁵ Hastie also serves as co-founder, CEO, and director of United States Tungsten Corp, a related venture.¹⁸

1
US Strategic Metals. Missouri Cobalt Holdings Changes Name to United States Strategic Metals, Announces Strategic Global Marketing Relationship With Glencore
2
USGS CERC. Madison County Mines Superfund Site
3
EPA. Madison County Mines Contaminants of Concern
4
EPA. Cobalt Mine in Fredericktown, Missouri, Focus of EPA Administrator and Rep. Jason Smith
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St. Louis Magazine. Missouri Company Makes a Big Bet on Cobalt
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Republic of Mining. EPA Agreement Will Allow Cobalt Mining at Lead Remediation Site Near Fredericktown
7
US Strategic Metals. US Strategic Metals – Solving the Critical Battery Materials Supply Chain Puzzle
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US Strategic Metals. US Strategic Metals Announces Wholly Domestic Production of Critical Minerals for Electric Vehicle Batteries
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KCUR. Missouri Mining Could Get a Boost From Trump Tariffs and Trade Tiffs With China and Congo
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Appian Capital Advisory. Appian Provides US$230M Senior Credit and Secured Royalty Financing to US Strategic Metals
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PR Newswire. US Strategic Metals Receives LOI for Potential $400M Funding Package From USEXIM
12
CourtListener. United States v. Environmental Operations, Inc.
13
Missouri Independent. After Battery Plant Fire, Southeast Missouri Town Alarmed About Potential Contamination
14
Missouri DNR. Operating Permit MO-0098752
15
Missouri Coalition for the Environment. Take Action – Efforts by US Strategic Metals and Critical Minerals Recovery Could Cause Lasting Impacts on Your Health, Air, Water, and Land
16
St. Louis Public Radio. Smoke Plume, Battery Plant Fire, Fredericktown Evacuations
17
Tucson.com. Stacy Hastie and His Company Dominate Tax Credits to Clean Up Polluted Sites
18
United States Tungsten Corp. About