Neometals closer to battery recycling plant after cost study

Neometals’ joint venture offspring, Primobius has finalised an internal engineering cost study – ‘ECS’ for a first stage shredding plant of what could become a potential 50tpd integrated lithium-ion battery recycling operation on a greenfields site in Germany.

The company’s ECS is being rolled out in two stages covering the first stage shredding and separation operation known as ‘Spoke’, followed by the second stage refinery entitled ‘Hub’. The ECS is due for completion in December this year and will allow the evaluation of a completely integrated Spoke and Hub operation.

Importantly, the staged delivery of the ECS allows Primobius’ time to focus on the recently minted supply agreements for a 10tpd Spoke to Mercedes-Benz and 50tpd Spoke to Canadian-based Stelco Holdings.

Neometals’ says future commercial supply agreements to provide refinery Hubs for both parties are expected in 2023.

The staged delivery model also enables the production and sale of intermediate mixed nickel-cobalt product, or ‘Black Mass’ from Spokes during the construction and commissioning of refinery Hubs.

Information garnered from extensive demonstration trials and actual performance of Primobius’ commercial 10tpd Spoke plant at Hilchenbach in Germany fed into the Spoke ECS.

The company says the increase in capital and operating costs, ringing the till at US$103.9 million and US$1,400 per tonne respectively, reflects the inclusion of an extensive lithium-ion battery module for a storage, discharge and disassembly component to the Spoke.

Under the previous ECS, Neometals’ says 100 per cent of individual cell feed would be sourced from the production scrap pool.

Whilst this makes up most of the current cell feed, the more lucrative future market arises from end-of-life electric vehicles and processing LIB feedstock.

In a European first, the new design will cater for electric car makers by integrating the processing of larger units arising from end-of-life EVs in addition to cell production scrap.

Neometals’ Managing Director, Chris Reed said: “Our proprietary refining Hub is the largest value generator for Primobius and its customers. The Hub processes Black Mass into high-purity and higher-value battery materials which can be used in production of new batteries. Integrated recycling closes the loop, reducing the carbon footprint of new cells using recycled feedstocks and complies with pending EU regulatory requirements to use minimum levels of recycled content in the new lithium-ion batteries.”

Neometals and German plant manufacturer SMS Group jointly launched Primobius about two years ago aiming to create and commercialise an environmentally friendly battery recycling process to treat used lithium-ion batteries.

Management consulting firm McKinsey and Co argue that with up to a third of all light vehicle sales estimated to be EVs by 2030 the quantity of spent battery waste will predictably follow suit – leaving a potentially lucrative market to recycle the battery components.

Primobius is on track to complete the 50tpd Hub ECS later this year to enable the evaluation of a fully integrated shredding and refining operation. With a burgeoning EV market set to supple a steady feed of end-of-life LIBs, the integrated ECS will no doubt appeal to current and potential partners in Neometals’ business development pipeline.

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