Electra teams with Ontario First Nations investment firm on battery recycling

Electra Battery Materials (NASDAQ: ELBM; TSXV: ELBM) has launched the Aki Battery Recycling joint venture with Indigenous economic development firm Three Fires Group to find critical minerals in scrap.

The effort is focused on selling black mass, made by recycling dead lithium-ion batteries, to Electra’s proposed refinery in northern Ontario. It aims to recover lithium, nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals to produce new lithium-ion batteries with its planned startup, though a timeline wasn’t yet known. The JV plans to build a recycling plant in southwest Ontario.

“Aki Battery Recycling aims to address the environmental impact of future battery waste in Ontario and beyond, by returning battery scrap back into the supply chain,” Electra CEO Trent Mell said in a release on Wednesday. “This venture not only aligns with our mission to onshore North America’s EV battery supply chain, but to do so sustainably and through a scalable solution to meet the growing needs of the North American electric vehicle industry.”

The JV comes almost one month after Electra received a US$20 million investment from the United States’ Department of Defense to help it develop its cobalt refinery in Temiskaming Shores, about 500 km north of Toronto. Just last week, it received a bid for an additional US$20 million investment from an unnamed party for the refinery, expected to be the first of its kind in North America. 

Electra shares gained 7.3% to 88¢ apiece on Wednesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at $50.3 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of 41¢ to 98¢.

Indigenous participation

Electra and Three Fires will work together to source and process the battery waste from manufacturers to produce black mass at a new plant to be built in southern Ontario.

Three Fires, based at the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation on Lake Huron, is to lead the capital raising for the recycling facility as well as determining its location. Electra will provide technical and commercial leadership. The proposed plant’s cost or location weren’t immediately clear.

“Aki Battery Recycling will provide a full-circle solution including a new primary recycling facility located in southern Ontario to shred lithium-ion batteries, process the scrap, and provide a steady supply of black mass,” Reggie George, Three Fires’ executive director of special projects and partnerships, said. “With the billions of dollars being invested into the southern Ontario battery manufacturing industry, ensuring that valuable materials are recovered and reused in Ontario, rather than discarded, is central to our shareholder First Nations’ interests.”

Battery recycling cycle

Several electric vehicle and battery storage facilities are coming online across southwestern Ontario, such as in Windsor and St. Thomas. The black mass is to be treated further at Electra’s hydrometallurgical refinery in Temiskaming Shores to recover critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The recovery of those minerals can help shrink the carbon footprint of the EV supply chain and reduce reliance on foreign countries for critical minerals, Electra said.

In 2023, Electra processed 40 tonnes of black mass at its Temiskaming Shores complex to test its proprietary recycling process. It’s believed to have been the first plant-scale hydrometallurgical recycling of black mass material in North America, and the first domestic production of nickel-cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate product (MHP). Electra recovered MHP, lithium carbonate, graphite and other products.