Global mining and metallurgy group Eramet and French “environmental” firm Suez have signed a new partnership to build a lithium-ion battery recycling plant in France by 2024.
The partnership will enable the two groups to launch the pre-industrial phase of the plans to recover lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles.
Following the selection of a site, launch of new studies enabling the selection of main suppliers, completion of administrative procedures and schedule definition for collection operations from suppliers, the project could begin as early as this year.
Based on the conclusions of the pre-industrial phase, the firms plan to produce black mass— a concentrate of metals (nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium, and graphite)— adapted to hydrometallurgical refining stages.
