Negotiations between the US and the EU on the planned agreement on the critical minerals for EVs are taking longer than expected. It would give European carmakers access to tax credits in the US.
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General Motors-backed Canadian battery recycler Lithion is building its first commercial critical minerals recovery facility in St-Bruno-de-Montarville, near Montreal, with plans to start operations this autumn.
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Mining company Glencore and battery recycling specialist Li-Cycle have announced plans to build Europe’s largest battery recycling plant on the Italian island of Sardinia. A final decision will be made next year.
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Stellantis has secured nickel and cobalt from Australia. The car company entered into a binding agreement with Alliance Nickel (formerly GME Resources) to supply 170,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 12,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate over an initial period of five years.
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A new EU project called METALLICO is looking into how battery metals such as lithium, cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel can be extracted in a sustainable way from primary and secondary raw material sources. The project includes 23 partners from nine countries.
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The USA and Japan have signed a trade agreement on minerals for electric vehicle batteries. This will allow Japanese car manufacturers broader access to the US market and subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act.
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After the US and the EU announced in mid-March that they wanted to negotiate an agreement on critical minerals for electric car batteries, the US government now submitted a concept paper for a transatlantic raw materials partnership to the EU Commission.
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US battery recycler Cirba Solutions is investing $300 mn in a new recycling factory in South Carolina. The company, which counts GM among its customers, plans to start construction near Columbia in Richland County this year and begin operations by the end of 2024.
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Mercedes-Benz has agreed to cooperate with CATL subsidiary Brunp in China to recycle electric car batteries. Brunp says it already works with Volvo, BMW, FAW-Volkswagen and GAC-Toyota, among others, in the area of battery recycling.
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The German electric vehicle manufacturer Next.e.GO Mobile has agreed on a cooperation with the raw materials trader Trafigura. Under the agreement, Trafigura will supply 100 per cent of e.Go’s future aluminium needs, as well as battery raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and copper.
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Battery recycling company Li-Cycle has received a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy for a 375 million dollar loan. The money will be used for the Canadian company’s first US facility in Rochester, New York, USA.
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The Australian battery materials company EV Metals Group has secured 127 hectares of land in Saudi Arabia to build a battery chemicals processing complex. Production of lithium hydroxide at the plant located in Yanbu Industrial City is scheduled to start in 2026.
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Germany’s chemical corporation BASF and French miner Eramet are finalising a $2.6 billion deal to process nickel in Indonesia, country officials said. The report comes amidst Indonesia wooing international industry to invest in its resources for use in EV batteries.
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Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché says it has made a breakthrough in the environmentally friendly production of modern G/NMCA cells. Leclanché is able to reduce the cobalt content in NMCA electrodes from 20 to five per cent in an environmentally friendly water-based process.
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SK Innovation and the recycling specialist SungEel HiTech want to launch a battery recycling joint venture in Korea. Both sides have just signed a letter of intent. The joint venture is to be founded next year.
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The South Korean chemical company LG Chem has invested 24 billion won (approx. 17.6 million euros) in Jae Young Tech, a battery recycling specialist also based in South Korea. However, the joint plans mainly relate to North America.
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The European Parliament and the member states have reached a preliminary agreement on the revision of the EU regulations for batteries. The background to the regulation is the proposals presented by the EU Commission at the end of 2020 on mandatory sustainability criteria for batteries.
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In its current analysis of battery prices, BloombergNEF has recorded the first increase since the start of the evaluations in 2010. The experts attribute this to the increased prices for raw materials and battery components as well as high inflation.
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MAN Truck & Bus is working on an after-use strategy for its batteries. The manufacturer is currently drawing up an action protocol for this. In parallel, MAN has launched a project to test used MAN vehicle batteries in stationary storage facilities.
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General Motors is looking to secure a new source of low-cost nickel and cobalt for its Ultium battery cells with a strategic investment in Australian battery materials supplier Queensland Pacific Metals.
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Stellantis has signed a non-binding agreement with GME Resources for the purchase of nickel and cobalt sulphate products from the NiWest project in Western Australia. The NiWest project is not yet in operation and a final decision has yet to be made.
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Battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution has signed cooperation agreements with three major suppliers in Canada for the supply of lithium and cobalt. The supply contract for cobalt sulphate is already binding, while the two lithium agreements still have to be finally negotiated.
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The specialty chemicals group Evonik wants to make the recycling of lithium from drive batteries of electric vehicles easier, more economical and more environmentally friendly. The ceramic membrane process developed for this purpose should be ready for the market in three to five years.
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Munich-based startup Tozero, which specializes in recycling lithium-ion batteries, has raised €3.5 million in a pre-seed round. According to the company, it developed a novel process to recover critical materials from batteries. The funds will be used to build a prototype plant.
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Honda has entered into a strategic partnership with the Japanese trading company Hanwa to ensure stable procurement of battery materials required for its longer-term electric offensive. The agreement centres around nickel, cobalt and lithium in particular.
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According to media reports, during German Chancellor Scholz’s visit to Canada, Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz signed agreements with the Canadian government to secure access to crucial battery raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.
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Tesla has signed new contracts with two of its existing Chinese suppliers of battery materials. Huayou Cobalt and CNGR Advanced Material signed pricing agreements with Tesla for deliveries through the middle of this decade.
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Renault Group has entered into a strategic partnership with Moroccan mining company Managem Group for the supply of cobalt for electric car batteries.
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The BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) joint venture has just established a closed cycle recycling operation in China for the reuse of the raw materials nickel, lithium and cobalt from high-voltage batteries. Compared to the use of newly mined material, CO2 emissions are to be reduced by 70 per cent.
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As the world’s largest producer of cobalt, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) no longer wants to settle for the role of a raw material supplier. Instead, it wants to build its own battery supply chain in the country. A battery factory is also being considered.
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