PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Neometals has completed the pilot plant test work on its lithium-ion battery recycling technology, meeting all technical objectives set and confirming the recovery of high purity chemicals for re-use in the battery supply chain.

“We are delighted to have completed the lithium battery recycling pilot with such encouraging results. We remain convinced that electrification of transport is an unstoppable trend, which by default will generate ever increasing volumes of production scrap and end-of-life batteries to responsibly manage,” said Neometals MD Chris Reed.

“We have now proven that we have a solution to meet the lithium-ion battery supply chain’s need for a safe, environmentally friendly recycling process which can reduce reliance on imported mineral feedstocks and satisfy increasing regulatory and stakeholder demands for sustainable and ethical raw material supply chains.”

Neometals has developed a sustainable process for  recovering nickel, cobalt and other valuable materials from spent and scrap lithium-ion batteries, which could otherwise be disposed of in landfill or processed in high emission pyrometallurgical recovery circuits.

The pilot plant represented part of the pre-development activities for a proposed commercial recycling venture, and saw Neometals successfully shred 2.3 t of spent commercial lithium-ion batteries during the feed preparation stage. A total of 980 kg of shredded and upgraded cathode and anode material was fed into the hydrometallurgical processing stage, from which cathode materials have been recovered and refined into high purity chemical products.

Reed said that the successful completion of the pilot, which started in February 2019, represented a significant commercial milestone for the company.

“We are looking forward with our partner to commercialise this asset. SMS Group’s skills set and global presence will further enhance the value and lower the risk as we prepare to showcase our offering to the market in a commercial demonstration plant in Europe, the region with the fastest growing battery cell production capacity.”