In the News

September 1, 2022

The Next Big Battery Material Squeeze Is Old Batteries

Li-Cycle employee wearing safety gear overseeing conveyor belt which has batteries on it

September 1, 2022

Original interview published via BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — A global rush into battery recycling is good news for automakers worried about future raw material supplies. But the wave of new factories poses a big risk for the recycling industry itself: there’s nowhere near enough scrap yet to feed them all.

The biggest bottleneck is likely to be for the companies focused mainly on processing black mass, according to Ajay Kochhar, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Canadian recycling startup Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. The company plans to produce high-value chemicals at a new $485 million facility in Rochester, New York. The company’s rapid expansion has attracted the attention of short sellers skeptical about its technology and development costs, but it received a vote of confidence with a $200 million investment this year by mining giant Glencore.

“Supply for us is not an issue, we have more batteries than we can typically handle,” Kochhar said. “But there is a question about how that will evolve for the industry as a whole.”

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