Battery Resourcers aims to open a 30,000-metric-ton-per-year facility in the US within six-months to recover materials from discarded lithium-ion batteries and scrap.
The vertically integrated lithium-ion battery recycling and engineered materials company plans to build and commission a commercial-scale, lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Georgia in August.
When the 154,000-square-foot facility is fully operational it will have the capacity to process 30,000 metric tons of discarded lithium-ion batteries and scrap per year — returning battery grade lithium, cobalt and nickel back into the battery supply chain.
Battery Resourcers is investing $43 million in the Covington facility, which is strategically located near EV manufacturing hubs and lithium-ion gigafactories.
Michael O’Kronley, CEO and director of Battery Resourcers, said: “Automotive OEMs are sitting on mountains of discarded batteries and scrap, and right now they have very few options for responsible and cost-effective disposal.
“As an industry, we need to match the capacity of the gigafactories producing millions of batteries with our own ‘gigarecycling’ facilities that can recycle millions of batteries.
“Our Covington facility will be the largest in North America this summer, but we encourage development of recycling facilities even larger than this one. We all win when we prevent batteries from going to landfill.”
The opening of the Covington facility marks the first phase of Battery Resourcers’ strategic expansion, which includes plans to open an additional facility for precursor and cathode-active material production in 2023 using its patented Hydro-to Cathode technology.
The company’s long-term plans include opening additional facilities in North America, Europe and Asia to process up to 150,000 metric tons of lithium-ion material globally per year.