Neometals has revealed plans for its 50 per cent-owned subsidiary Primobius to deliver a fully-integrated hydrometallurgical refinery hub to Stelco, offering recycled battery metal products to the electric vehicle (EV) market.
Primobius’ option to acquire up to a 50 per cent equity in the Stelco special purpose vehicle has been extended until June 30 in 2025 to align with the fully-integrated plant offer. The offering as part of the initial agreement had been for a standalone battery shredding spoke.
The business case change was made to better provide carmakers, who supply the end-of-life EVs, with a secure supply of key battery cathode chemicals.
Primobius, which is also half-owned by German plant manufacturer SMS group, plans to offer Stelco the fully-integrated plant supply contract following the completion of a detailed engineering study and final factory acceptance testing of its fully-integrated 2500 tonnes per annum pilot plant for motoring giant, Mercedes-Benz.
In March last year, Mercedes confirmed Primobius as its partner for the design and construction of the battery recycling pilot plant, which has a nominal design capacity of 10 tonnes per day. Primobius will supply the technology licence to the pilot royalty-free.
Neometals managing director Chris Reed said: “Primobius values the strong working relationship with Stelco. The shift in business model to offer North American car makers a secure supply of battery materials from their end-of-life electric vehicles is a reflection of what the end customer wants. Primobius recycling plants provide their owners with a recycling solution to recover high-purity battery materials at lower carbon-footprint than from virgin mined materials.”
Reed said the company was committed to becoming the world’s leading provider of lithium-ion battery recycling plants.
Neometals says Primobius and Stelco have been working together for the past two years on due diligence, front-end engineering design (FEED) and the business case for a commercial battery recycling operation to harvest end-of-life batteries from EVs in North America.
A recent independent life-cycle assessment, completed by environmental consultants Minviro, confirmed Primobius’ integrated hydrometallurgical refining process results has a global warming footprint about 85 per cent lower than traditional EV supply chains – starting with mined nickel, cobalt and lithium sources.
The assessment focused on the JV’s production of key battery materials including lithium fluoride, nickel sulphide hexahydrate and cobalt sulphate heptahydrate and demonstrated Primobius’ success in removing embedded carbon from the battery materials supply chain.
The delivery of secure key battery chemical supply with a low carbon footprint places Primobius among the world’s leaders in the battery recycling space. Battery recycling is becoming mandatory in many countries as end-of-life scrap batteries pose a growing environmental challenge and vehicle manufactures are hungry for battery chemicals.
Mercedez-Benz seems to agree that Primobius is offering a solid product and it is handy to have that sort of big-name brand in your corner.
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By Andrew Duffy
