Cirba Solutions to build battery materials facility in South Carolina

Cirba Solutions, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycler, has announced an initial investment of more than $300 million into a lithium-ion electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling flagship facility in South Carolina.

The plant, which will be in the Pineview Industrial Park in Richland County, South Carolina, will be Cirba Solutions' eighth North American operation and its fourth in the U.S. “Battery Belt,” an area where more than 15 new LIB gigafactories or expansions have been announced between Michigan and Georgia since 2021. The company says groundbreaking will take place this year and operations are expected to begin in late 2024.

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According to county documents, the $323 million facility will span approximately 206 acres of the Pineview Industrial Park and create 310 jobs. Additionally, county documents show that, as an incentive for choosing the location, the company will pay a property tax rate of 4 percent over 40 years—reduced from the state’s typical 6 percent rate for manufacturing facilities.

Cirba Solutions says this new facility will bring critical battery materials to the U.S. and will focus on processing end-of-life hybrid and electric vehicle batteries, gigafactory scrap and end-of-life consumer batteries to extract critical materials, such as nickel, cobalt and lithium. These key metals will support the domestic LIB supply chain and provide enough premium recycled, battery-grade materials to power over 500,000 EV batteries annually.

“The state of South Carolina and Richland County have been tremendous partners in supporting Cirba Solutions’ strategy to build a sustainable battery materials supply chain,” Cirba President and CEO David Klanecky says. “We are proud to bring this battery materials megasiite to Richland County, which will create generational jobs in the state and support an amazing community. Additionally, it shows our commitment to provide sustainably sourced and domestic battery-grade raw materials for cathode production in North America.”

The state has been a popular destination for EV and battery-related manufacturing recently. In December 2022, Nevada-based Redwood Materials announced it would invest $3.5 billion in a 600-acre battery production and recycling campus in Berkeley County, near Charleston.

“South Carolina has worked hard to create a business environment where the electric vehicle industry can thrive, and with announcements like this it is most certainly paying off,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says. “We are proud to have Cirba Solutions as a partner as we continue to grow our already booming electric vehicle industry.”

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Beyond job creation, Cirba says it is focused on partnering with the communities it operates in through outreach and career paths. Its new facility will also be used as an educational and professional training center, and the company says it will bring critical knowledge and decades of experience to the community by highlighting processing technology for end-of-life batteries. It adds that the facility will have a focus on clean energy and ensure that thoughtful operational practices are used in processing materials and converting them back into reusable battery materials.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our footprint and partnering with the state of South Carolina,” says Luke Kissam, chairman of Cirba’s board. “This flagship battery materials site is crucial to the success of North America’s battery supply chain and is strategically located to support our partners.”

The South Carolina campus is in addition to Cirba’s expanded Lancaster, Ohio, and Trail, British Columbia, facilities that have been processing batteries for decades. In October 2022, the company announced plans to invest more than $200 million to expand the Lancaster site.

Cirba has received a wave of funding as it has extended its reach in the battery sector. Since October, it has been awarded two grants totaling just over $82 million by the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as a $245 million investment from the Sweden-based EQT Infrastructure V fund and $50 million from Japan-based Marubeni Corp.