Aurubis begins test operation at battery recycling pilot plant

Aurubis is commissioning a pilot plant at its site in Hamburg, Germany, that will allow the company to extract metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite from black mass using a modular hydrometallurgical process. Black mass is the powdery residue that forms when lithium-ion batteries are dismantled and shredded. The company says the metals it recovers can then be used for new batteries and other products.

The commissioning of the pilot plant follows the conclusion of what the company says were extensive lab-scale tests of the process.

“Battery recycling is gaining strong significance due to growth in electric vehicles and the swift increase in demand for lithium-ion batteries and the raw materials required to produce them,” Aurubis AG CEO Roland Harings says. “As the most efficient and sustainable smelter network in the world, we have the long-standing metallurgical expertise necessary to be a key trailblazer for the mobility shift with our metals and process solutions.”

He continues, “The responsible approach to resources and the goal of closing the cycle of valuable metals for electric vehicles are important factors for our investment decision. Furthermore, recycling is a central, strategic driver of growth for Aurubis. We want to play a leading role in battery recycling.”

Following the conclusion of the pilot phase, Aurubis says it plans to build a battery recycling plant on an industrial scale, which it expects to invest 200 million euros ($220.5 million) in.  

“I’m firmly convinced that Aurubis will commission an industrial scale

battery recycling plant within the next five years,” Harings says.

These investments in the growth area of battery recycling are another example the company’s Metals for Progress: Driving Sustainable Growth strategy, Aurubis says. The company recently announced that it was investing to construct a bleed treatment facility at the Aurubis site in Olen, Belgium, that will process electrolyte to extract elements such as nickel.