US-based Ascend Elements and Poland’s Elemental Strategic Metals (ESM) opened their new commercial-scale EV battery recycling facility in Zawiercie near Krakow earlier this month. The new plant, where lithium-ion batteries are dismantled, discharged and shredded to produce black mass, will be operated by the 50/50 joint venture AE Elemental. The facility, which was announced earlier this year, can process up to 12,000 tonnes of spent Li-ion batteries per year.
Commercial-scale lithium extraction capability is to be added to the facility beginning in autumn 2024 and to be operational by 2026.The American partner, Ascend Elements, will be providing the technology needed to recover active cathode material and cathode precursors from the black mass.
Besides supplying the new, state-of-the-art pre-treatment facility for the new plant, Elemental Strategic Metals is also bringing "one of the best developed networks of waste collection points in Europe" to the table alongside a wealth of experience in the field of waste logistics. CEO Michał Zygmunt was pleased with the latest progress, saying that ESM had come significantly closer to becoming a global leader in the market of recycling materials necessary to produce EV batteries.
