You don't think the dozen or more Chinese Scrap EV-LiB companies have high recovery rates at their plants?? Or you don't think they are working towards increasing their recoveries in their R&D departments?
These companies are so detailed they reveal their cash cost distribution, how much $ is labour, scrap LiB, reagents. Even the sensitivities against metal salt prices.
This is an entire industry in China, starting from the scrap EV-LiB collection agents, building of recycling plants and then selling back into the new materials market. Chinese also recover numerous products:
- nickel sulfate
- cobalt sulfate
- manganese sulfate
- lithium (metal salt)
- membrane (separator)
- copper (wires)
- aluminium foil
- plastic
- graphite (metal salt)
- other alkali products
There are about a dozen large-scale plants (not including the small ones) that process about 40,000 up to 100,000tpa of scrap EV-type LiB. These companies are now signing up agreements with scrap collection agents domestically in China and abroad. Then selling the salts into the respective markets such as the cathode or anode market. There are also companies which are vertically integrated.
