Fortum has developed a new method to recycle lithium from rechargeable batteries. The Finnish company calls it a patented “breakthrough technology and a new recovery method” designed to reduce the environmental impact of recycling lithium.

In future, Mercedes-Benz will only buy battery cells with cobalt and lithium from certified quarries. The Stuttgart-based automaker also intends to reduce the cobalt content of the next generation of battery cells to less than ten per cent and, in the long term, to dispense with cobalt altogether.

Lithium producer Livent says it has extended its supply contract with Tesla to 2021. Tesla wants Livent to provide higher quantities than in 2020 and a new lithium mine is to help in this respect but is fraught with risks.

The Texas-based materials science company Momentum Technologies focuses on extracting critical metals from electronic waste, and has licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory process for recovering cobalt and other metals from used lithium-ion batteries.

To secure the supply of raw materials such as lithium or rare earth in Europe, the EU Commission launched the European Raw Materials Alliance today. ERMA already includes 150 companies as well as non-governmental organizations, associations and governments.

Tesla is considering taking a stake in LG Energy Solution, LG Chem’s planned battery subsidiary reports local media. Tesla has also signed a supply contract for lithium from the USA.

The Canadian recycling company Li-Cycle is now giving details of its announced first battery recycling plant in the USA. The company will invest more than 175 million US dollars in this plant in Rochester, New York State.

So far there has been much speculation, but little official information about Redwood Materials, the recycling start-up founded by ex-Tesla CTO JB Straubel. Now Straubel has given more details about the plans of Redwood Materials in an interview.

The Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro announce the formation of a joint venture to enable the recycling of battery materials and aluminium from electric vehicles in the Norwegian market.

Honda is expanding its partnership in Europe with the French recycling specialist SNAM. In future, SNAM will collect batteries from Honda dealers and authorised recycling facilities in 22 countries and test them for their suitability for recycling and further processing.

Canada’s Li-Cycle recycling company announces that it has completed its first commercial shipment of recycled battery materials. The firm says it can recover over 80 per cent of the elements found in lithium-ion batteries.

The BMW Group has just concluded a supply contract with Ganfeng Lithium based in Jiangxi, China, with a forecast volume of €540M for the supply of lithium hydroxide for battery cells. The lithium will be extracted in Australia with deliveries to start next year.

The Dutch Advanced Metallurgical Group (AMG) is planning to build a lithium hydroxide refinery in the German town of Zeitz, Saxony-Anhalt. The metal to be processed there is to be used to produce electric car batteries.

BMW has opened its new Battery Cell Competence Centre in Munich-Milbertshofen. The centre will develop new battery cells, manufacture them on a prototype scale and test them. The Munich-based company is still not planning for in-house series production.

In the Potosi region of Bolivia, the deal between privately owned German company ACI Systems and the state-owned Bolivian company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB ) has been annulled by the cabinet of ministers of President Evo Morales.

The BMW Group is changing its strategy for purchasing raw materials for electric cars. In the case of important materials such as lithium and cobalt, intermediaries are to disappear from the supply chain.

Earthtech will be the first Korean company to enter the battery recycling business and recently started construction of a dedicated facility for dismantling electric vehicles and recycling used batteries.

The project Taskforce 40, Critical Raw Materials for Electric Vehicles (CRM4EV) of the International Energy Agency HEV technology collaboration has now finally gone live with a web presence and first results.

Volkswagen has signed a letter of intent with Ganfeng Lithium for the long-term supply of lithium for battery cells. It is planned that Ganfeng will supply the Wolfsburg-based company and its suppliers with lithium for the next ten years.

Alternet Systems (ALYI), U.S battery, e-motorcycle and military applications manufacturer, has just announced a prospective order for two thousand of its ReVolt Electric Motorcycles which would total $20 million in sales. The Denver-based company is looking to open an assembly plant in Kenya, to complete manufacturing in Africa for ReVolt Electric Motorcycles to be sold […]

The recently announced Volkswagen pilot plant for recycling electric car battery materials in Salzgitter, which will go into operation in 2020, is designed to initially produce 1,200 tonnes per year. The project in Salzgitter is to be followed by further recycling plants in the next few years.

The battery of an electric car is often denigrated as rolling hazardous waste in circles still favouring the combustion engine. We were able to convince ourselves of the opposite at the specialist firm Duesenfeld that is disposing of the myth – Battery recycling works deep into the cell. It is only down to politics to […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced the establishment of a research and development centre for the recycling of critical materials such as cobalt and lithium from electric vehicle batteries for example. The aim is to reduce dependence on foreign resources.

For the first time, a German company gains direct access to lithium and literally tons of it. After Bolivia reportedly appointed a German consortium as a strategic partner for the industrialisation of the county’s vast lithium deposits, the contract has been signed and production rates specified.

Bolivia’s state-owned lithium minier Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) has selected the German company ACI Systems as a strategic partner to industrialise the lithium deposit of Salar de Uyuni, the country’s vast salt lake. This bears its own problems for extraction.

Following the deals with Tesla and LG Chem, BMW has now also signed a five year supply agreement with Ganfeng Lithium for lithium hydroxide.

The Chinese firm Ganfeng Lithium has signed an agreement with Tesla for the delivery of lithium hydroxide. The agreement runs from 2018 until 2020, with an option to extend for another three years. Ganfeng Lithium will deliver one fifth of their total lithium hydroxide stock to Tesla.

The South Korean battery manufacturer LG Chem has signed an agreement with the Chinese Ganfeng Lithium to supply 48,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide for electric vehicle batteries until 2022.

The Chilean lithium supplier SQM will sell their 50% stake in the Cuachari-Olaroz project in Argentina to the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium for 87.5 million dollars.

Demand for lithium could double by 2025 due to the expected boom in electric vehicles, a forecast by the management consultancy Stormcrow Capital suggest. At the same time, production of the rare metal will triple over the next four years, GlobalData estimates.