Excerpt from pv-magazine-australia.com
A number of Australian battery material recovery projects got off the ground this week, including the completion of Western Australian outfit Neometal’s battery recycling demonstration plant, a Queensland-Japanese joint venture studying the extraction of cobalt from copper tailings as well as the funding of Sydney-based startup Novalith.
Australian companies are increasingly looking at how to recover materials for battery storage as the global focus on ethically and sustainably sourced minerals heats up. Keen to shake our reputation as a global quarry, a number of Australian groups are progressing promising plans which range from recovering storage minerals from tailings (essentially mining waste), to creating scaleable, efficient and sustainable recycling processes, as well as low-emission lithium extraction.
Neometals
Having transitioned from a traditional mining outfit to today focussing on recycling and closed loop mineral recovery, Neometals has quietly been forming partnerships across the world to establish a handful of core projects. Yesterday, the company announced the completion of its Primobius battery recycling plant, which is a 50:50 joint venture with Germany’s SMS Group, and is based in Hilchenbach, north of Frankfurt. Trials of the plant are expected to begin in the coming weeks and be completed by the end of November.