Sumitomo Metal Mining is planning to construct two recycling plants to recover copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium from used lithium-ion batteries.
Recovery will take place at Toyo Smelter & Refinery located in Saijo City and at the Niihama Nickel Refinery – both in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture.
Construction starts this year and is expected to be complete in June 2026.
The company said raw lithium-ion battery material annual capacity is some 10,000 tons.
Sumitomo has concluded partnership agreements with leading recycling companies to establish a recycling supply chain. They will plan a used battery collection system, it said.
It added the plants will combine pyrometallurgical smelting and hydrometallurgical refining. Their design takes into account the expected future increase in used lithium batteries. It also pays heed to the metal recovery rate and recycled material inclusion rate defined in the EU batteries regulation in force since August 2023.
