Envirostream Australia, a 24% owned subsidiary of Lithium Australia, has signed a lithium-ion battery materials offtake deal that includes recycled mixed metal dust (MMD) containing cobalt, nickel and lithium.
The memorandum of understanding with South Korean battery recycler SungEel Hitech involves the exclusive supply of metals extracted from recycled lithium-ion batteries out of Australia.
The materials are produced at Envirostream’s battery recycling plant in Melbourne, Australia.
Envirostream will start shipments of materials this month, following an expansion of its recycling facilities.
Lithium Australia announced it had taken a 18.9% share in Envirostream earlier this year as part of its mission to “close the loop on the energy-metal cycle”. It upped its stake to 23.9% for an additional $100,000 in October.
Lithium Australia MD Adrian Griffin said the company was working to roll out Envirostream Australia-wide collection network and expand its shredding and separation capacities.
Envirostream will have exclusivity of MMD supply from Australia and will increase its materials shipments to SungEel for refining into cobalt, nickel and lithium chemicals for the production of new LIBs.
In August, Lithium Australia began testing the performance capabilities of coin cell cathodes using recycled lithium phosphate (LP) after recovering MMD from old lithium-ion batteries for the first time.
In May, Lithium Australia and China’s DLG Battery Co formed a joint venture to sell the latters lithium-ion batteries in Australia— and launch a battery product targeting domestic and global markets.
Image: SungEel president Mr Kang Myung Yi and Envirostream managing director Andrew Mackenzie shake hands after signing the offtake MoU.
