Ascend selects Poland for European recycling site

Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements has formed AE Elemental, a joint venture (JV) with Elemental Strategic Metals that will be based in Elemental’s home city of Zawiercie, Poland.

Through the JV, the companies will, in a 50/50 arrangement, jointly own and operate a newly constructed electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling facility in Zawiercie.

The facility will be designed to disassemble, discharge and shred EV batteries to produce black mass, which can be used to make new EV battery materials, including cathode active material (CAM) and cathode precursor material (pCAM).

The planned facility will have the capacity to recycle up to 12,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 28,000 EV batteries annually.

“Our partnership with Ascend Elements is more than just a strategic move into the battery recycling industry, it is a transformative step towards becoming a key player in the battery materials industry," Elemental Holding CEO Pawel Jarski says.

“The combination of Ascend Elements’ cutting-edge technology with our recycling expertise, large collection network, recycling platform and global footprint puts AE Elemental in a pole position in this evolving market."

The JV partners have agreed to jointly invest in large-scale lithium extraction from black mass. A lithium extraction system capable of processing up to 20,000 metric tons of black mass per year will start being installed this fall and is being planned to be operational in 2026.

The companies also plan to begin building a new EV battery recycling facility in central Germany. The AE Elemental facility in Germany will have the capacity to recycle up to 25,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 58,000 EVs.

Elemental recovers strategic metals, such as platinum group metals, copper and other base and precious metals, "in an environmentally friendly way.” It has subsidiaries in 35 countries in Europe, Asia and North America.

Ascend Elements provides sustainable, closed-loop battery material solutions, including EV battery recycling and commercial-scale production pCAM and CAM.

“The AE Elemental JV is a significant milestone for Ascend Elements, representing our first commercial-scale battery recycling facility in Europe," Ascend Elements CEO Mike O'Kronley says. "Expanding into Europe will allow us to better service our customers locally and help the industry comply with new EU rules requiring recycled material in new batteries. This is a perfect time to expand our operations.”