Battery recycling

Recovering lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and other materials from spent batteries and factory scrap to make new cells.

• Packs are discharged, shredded and sorted; the fine 'black mass' that remains holds most of the valuable electrode metals.
• Chemical leaching dissolves black mass in acid and separates each metal, often recovering over 95% of nickel and cobalt; smelting is simpler but loses lithium.
• Most feed today is factory scrap, because EV packs last 10–15 years or more and few have retired yet.
• Margins track metal prices; the 2023–24 slump in lithium and nickel strained recyclers, and Li-Cycle went bankrupt in 2025.