Electra Battery Materials will process 75 tons of material from spent batteries
Electra Battery Materials has begun testing a battery recycling demonstration plant at the Temiskaming refinery site.
The company announced on October 13 that commissioning of the plant is now underway following the installation of two major circuits, the material feed treatment system and the lime delivery system.
Toronto-based Electra is converting an existing refinery between the town of Cobalt and the city of Themiscumming Shores into a cobalt and nickel sulfate refinery. This is part of a larger industrial building on site with a recycling plant.
Commissioning the plant means inspecting, checking, validating and testing all individual components before the start of normal operations scheduled for 2023.
Electra has ambitious plans to build an $800 million battery materials park in northeastern Ontario to supply battery cell makers with process materials needed for the North American electric vehicle sector. The park will be the first of its kind on the continent.
Black lump recycling is only part of that work.
“Automakers are looking for a closed-loop supply chain for their batteries, and Elektra’s recycling process is designed to bring end-of-life batteries and battery manufacturing scrap to the market,” Trent Mel, CEO of the company, said in a news release. It presents a compelling solution for moving to a circular model for recycling.” release.
Used batteries and battery cells are typically subjected to mechanical processes involving crushing, sorting and sieving to produce a powdered material called “black lumps”. This material contains various precious metals coveted by the electric vehicle industry.
Electra doesn’t actually crush the battery. They import black nuggets from outside suppliers.
In preparation for commissioning, the company sourced black mass samples from suppliers in North America, Europe and Asia. The process was developed in his SGS lab in Lakefield to recover lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and graphite.
Electra said in a news release that it plans to process up to 75 tons of material in batch mode.
“Pending the completion of the demonstration plant and review of the economics of the project, if successful, we will build a 5,000 tonne per year black mass processing facility within the Battery Materials Park in Ontario using existing infrastructure, personnel and lab facilities. “As the market for recycled battery materials grows, building additional modules will add additional capacity.”
Electra has already secured a buyer at Glencore AG for all nickel and cobalt extracted from recycled materials in the first 18 months of operation.
The cobalt sulfate production portion of the refinery will come online next spring. Electra has already secured a buyer for his LG Energy Solution and its products in South Korea, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries.
Nickel sulphate production will start in 2024, followed by the Cathode Precursor (pCAM) manufacturing plant.
