Electra Battery Materials is announcing the launch of its black mass demonstration plant to recover and to recycle high-value elements found in recycled lion-ion batteries, Kallanish reports.

The demonstration plant is in Temiskaming Shores north of Toronto, Ontario, where Electra plans to develop a battery materials park with four projects including the battery recycling. If the demonstration plant is successful, the Ontario-based company plans to develop a full-scale black mass recycling plant to produce 5,000 tonnes/year of recycled nickel, cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese, and graphite. The plant would be the first of its kind in North America and would diversify the company’s customers and cash flow, it says.

The company will process up to 75 tonnes of black mass material in a batch mode using its proprietary hydrometallurgical process in the demonstration plant, it says. Electra says it expects to complete the demonstration plant in Q1 2023. The material to be processed will come from business partners and third parties.

The company’s Temiskaming Shores’ plans also include a refurbished and enlarged cobalt refinery, where commissioning is expected to begin in spring 2023. The Ontario refinery will produce 5,000 tonnes/year of cobalt sulfate. Electra’s project would also include a nickel sulfate plant (2024-2025) and a battery precursor cathode active materials plant (2025).

“The launch of our black mass recycling demonstration plant caps a year filled with a number of significant achievements for Electra,” says ceo Trent Mell in a statement. The passage of the US Inflation Reduction Act and the move by automakers to electrify their fleets has made a domestic supply of battery-grade materials produced either through refining or recycling is becoming more critical, he says.

Last October, the company began commissioning the demonstration plant.