New Partnership to Advance Circularity in Battery Raw Material Supply Chains
Li-Cycle and Glencore want to create an integrated network to supply primary and secondary lithium-ion battery materials.
According to the press releases of Switzerland-based Glencore International AG and Canadian Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., the strategic partnership will better serve the EV battery supply chain by providing customers with an integrated approach for their metal needs. The two companies have executed a global feedstock supply agreement under which Glencore will provide all types of manufacturing scrap and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries to Li-Cycle.
Li-Cycle (a leading lithium-ion battery recycler in North America) and Glencore (a leading provider of primary metals for the production of EV batteries) have also entered into a non-binding Term Sheet for global, long-term strategic contracts, which would complement Li-Cycle’s existing off-take and marketing agreements, including:
- Supply of black mass to Li-Cycle’s Hubs
- Off-take of black mass from Li-Cycle’s Spokes
- Off-take of battery-grade end products produced by Li-Cycle’s Hubs
- Off-take of by-products from Li-Cycle’s Spokes and Hubs, and
- Supply of sulfuric acid, one of the key input reagents for Li-Cycle’s Hubs
As reported, upon execution of the commercial agreements, Glencore will make a 200 million Dollar investment in the Canadian partner and will have the right to nominate one board member to the Li-Cycle board. “The commercial agreements are expected to be finalized and the financial investment is expected to close in the company’s third fiscal quarter 2022,” Li-Cycle gave account. With the addition of this strategic partnership with Li-Cycle, Glencore seeks to combine primary and recycled battery raw materials to produce battery-grade end products, the Swiss company informed. In Europe, the firm intends to assess the feasibility of utilizing its existing asset footprint “with a view towards re-purposing some of our assets. This will reduce the lead-time for achieving industrial-scale production of battery-grade end products”.
Glencore would also explore, together with other appropriate supply chain partners, the production of precursor cathode active material (pCAM) in Europe and potentially North America.
www.glencore.com
www.li-cycle.com
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2022, Page 23, Photo: Li-Cycle)
