Li-Cycle

Li-Cycle is a battery-recycling company focused on recovering critical minerals from lithium-ion batteries. The company operates in the resource-recovery and clean-technology sector, processing spent batteries and manufacturing scrap to extract materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper for reuse in new battery production. It is headquartered in Canada and has expanded operations into the United States, including facilities aimed at supporting the electric-vehicle supply chain. Li-Cycle is publicly listed, having gone public through a merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company. Its core process, known as Spoke and Hub, separates battery materials at regional Spoke facilities before further refining them at centralised Hub plants. The company has attracted investment and offtake interest from major commodity traders, including Glencore, reflecting its position within the wider battery-recycling and critical-minerals supply chain. Li-Cycle has also received support from the United States Department of Energy for its recycling infrastructure. It competes with other recyclers, such as Nth Cycle, in a market driven by rising demand for electric vehicles and battery materials. The company has faced financial and operational challenges, including delays and cost overruns at some of its facilities. Li-Cycle was founded in the late 2010s as demand for sustainable battery-material recovery began to grow alongside the expansion of the electric-vehicle industry.