A new US-Korean joint venture has announced plans to launch a major lithium-ion batteries recycling operation in the US.
Metallica Commodities Corp (MCC) and SungEel HiTech said the new company, SungEel MCC Americas (SMA), will “redefine” the lithium-ion battery, e-waste recycling, energy and metals markets in North America— “where consumption of cobalt and lithium has outpaced supply in recent years”.
The firms said the operation aimed to become the biggest and “most environmentally friendly recycler of lithium-ion batteries” in North America. They said SMA is also eyeing business in Central America.
SMA did not give details of the location of the planned US facility or the cost of the project. The company did not respond to BBB’s request for information about the structure of the joint venture.
New York-based MCC is a specialist group focusing on the commercial recycling of non-ferrous concentrates, residues and by-products from the mining, metallurgical, recycling and processing industries.
SungEel, based in Jeollabuk-do in the southwest of South Korea, recycles more than 8,000 tons of spent LIBs and scraps annually.
SMA said its operations will use Metallica’s worldwide network of agents, traders, suppliers, electronic recyclers and customers coupled with SungEel’s proprietary LIB recycling process.
The joint venture plans to initially recycle more than 3,000 tons of spent lithium-ion batteries annually and create more than 100 “hi-tech manufacturing jobs”.
“Cobalt, nickel, lithium and copper will be recovered from the recycled batteries through an efficient and environmentally friendly process,” SMA said. “The recovered metals can be used in the manufacture of new lithium-ion batteries as well as in a number of similar industrial applications.”
SMA said: “Cobalt and lithium are the two most ‘exotic’ metals found in LIBs. Over 50% of the world’s cobalt reserves are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whereas over 50% of the world’s lithium is found in South America’s lithium triangle. Consumption of both materials has outpaced supply in recent years, with the US lacking local production of both.”
SungEel, established in 2000, said its patented tech recovers valuable metals found in lithium-ion batteries such as cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and lithium through a hydrometallurgical process. The company recycles more than 8,000 tons of spent LIBs and scraps annually. The company said its patented tech recovers valuable metals found in lithium-ion batteries such as cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and lithium through a hydrometallurgical process.
SungEel said it is already working on a “five-fold expansion” of its current operational capacity in South Korea by 2021 “to prepare for the expected increase in LIBs caused by the growth in the EV industry.
SungEel operates a pre-treatment plant in Klang, Malaysia, to obtain raw materials— and revealed it will launch two new such plants this year in Hungary and India, followed by additional plants “worldwide”.
MCC has offices worldwide and operates an electronic scrap recycling plant in France and mining operations in Guyana and Tanzania.