US battery recycler Ace Green Recycling and Anglo-Swiss commodity trading company Glencore announced the signing of a 15-year supply agreement for recycled lead and other metals. They will come from lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.
A company spokesperson said at current market prices, the 1.6 million tons of recycled metal can be valued at over $6.5 billion.
The companies said the agreement allows for Glencore to purchase up to 100% of Ace’s products from four of its planned lead-acid (LAB) and lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling plants.
The plants are being built in the US, India and Thailand, and are expected to be complete by 2024. Once operational, Ace estimates they will cumulatively produce 1.6 million tons of recycled metals containing lead, lithium, nickel and cobalt over the 15-year period.
Kunal Sinha, head of recycling at Glencore, said: “These recycling parks will not only provide a unique domestic, but also regional, solution for furthering circularity in batteries – both high and low voltage. The partnership will also support our ambition to become a net zero total emissions (Scope 1,2,3) company by 2050.”
Ace said its hydrometallurgical recycling processes for both LABs and LIBs produce recovery rates higher than 99% and 98% respectively.
Once operating at commercial scale, Ace’s recycling facilities under this agreement are estimated to have a total annual processing capacity of 250,000 tons of LABs and 47,000 tons of LIBs.
Ace’s first commercial LIB recycling facility is set to start up this month in Ghaziabad, India. It will recycle various battery chemistries such as lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NCM), lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP).
A second Indian facility in Mundra is expected to come online in Q4 2023. This is at the same time as Ace’s flagship plant in Texas, US. Ace said the two facilities are projected to process up to 100,000 tons of LABs and 20,000 tons of LIBs annually by 2025.
