Lithium Battery Recycler Begins

[Sparty]

(Kitco News) - Lithium-ion battery resource recovery company Li-Cycle Holdings (NYSE: LICY) today announced the start of commercial operations at its first Spoke recycling facility in Europe, located in Magdeburg, Germany.

In a statement, the company said that the Germany Spoke's first main processing line has now commenced operations, with the second main line expected to start later in 2023. Each main line has the capacity to process up to 10,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material per year.

With an additional 10,000 tonnes of ancillary capacity planned, the facility is expected to have a total capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year, making the Germany Spoke the largest Spoke in Li-Cycle's current portfolio and one of the largest facilities of its kind on the continent.

Across its five Spokes in North America and Europe, Li-Cycle is expected to have a total input processing capacity of up to 81,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material per year.

“The network of five operating Spokes, which are located in Kingston, Ontario; Rochester, New York; Gilbert, Arizona; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and now Magdeburg, Germany, ensures that the company has an established footprint in key strategic regions to maintain its significant first-mover advantage on both continents,” the company said.

Li-Cycle has additional European Spokes planned in France and Norway, with future planned capacity across its global Spoke network of more than 100,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material per year.

Li-Cycle's Spokes produce an intermediate product called “black mass,” which includes a variety of valuable battery materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt. Li-Cycle plans to process the black mass it produces from its Spoke network at its future Hub facilities.

The company's first commercial Hub facility is under construction in Rochester, New York, and is expected to commence commissioning later this year and process up to 35,000 tonnes of black mass per year.

Li-Cycle is a leading global lithium-ion battery resource recovery company and North America's largest pure-play lithium-ion battery recycler, with a rapidly growing presence across Europe. Li-Cycle recovers critical battery-grade materials to create a domestic closed-loop battery supply chain.