Ann: Battery Recycling - Outstanding Pilot Plant Results, page-17

In Asia, hydro-metallurgical processes are the preferred recycling method. Copper is separated and, together with aluminium, efficiently processed. The recovery rates for other materials are said to be very high, starting from 98%. Recovery rate, however, is not the same as purity. In the case of nickel and cobalt the purity is usually very high as the materials are recovered as sulphates. For lithium to be sold as battery grade, the purity requirements are very high and, according to Circular Energy Storage’s Melin, not everybody is able to sell the material as such even if many can