The brief

Analyst view

• Acquired Li-Cycle (Aug 2025): four North American spokes, Rochester hub, Magdeburg hub (Germany).
• Rochester hub will produce 8,250 tonnes/year lithium carbonate; stalled since 2023, liens cleared.
• Hydrometallurgical refining to extract nickel, cobalt, lithium from battery black mass.

Technical approach

As reported

Hub-and-spoke model

Distributed mechanical processing

Spokes shred batteries into black mass (mixed oxides). Hubs use hydrometallurgy to recover pure metals.

Rochester hub

Hydrometallurgical refining

Acid leaching and crystallization recover battery-grade nickel, cobalt and lithium salts.

Supply offtake

Glencore integration

Glencore buys all premium materials from hubs, reselling to battery and refining customers.