They havepatented technology for battery recyclingThis is anew...

They havepatented technology for battery recycling

This is anew gold rush

They seethemselves as the lowest-cost nickel producer in the world with highly scalablebusiness

Toughdirective at Europe demand that electric batteries recycled at the end of theirlife

All the carmakers in Europe follow Elon musk for having their own battery plant, so in theend, they will find themselves with a massive recycling capacity shortage

Storingbatteries is dangerous with fire risk

The otherurgency for recycling in Europe is that the continent is short of the metalsthat go into batteries.

From 2027in Europe, there will be a CO2 footprint threshold and recycled contentdeclarations, and by 2030 a minimum recycled content.

Neometalsdeveloped a process first to shred batteries to the black mass, a powder stage,and then to extract nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium and copper out of EVbatteries using solvents in a patented sequence,

TheNeometals board, chaired by David Reed, has some hefty multinationalexperience.

Neometalsneeded a partner to help build the plants that service the big car companies.They agreed to a 50/50 joint venture with German company SMS.

SMS hasbuilt a demonstration plant in Hilchenbach, and last month the front-endshredding section to the black-mass stage was successfully commissioned withfeedstock from a local carmaker. The back end refining section is beingcommissioned later this month, with trails running through to November.

The jointventure is now building operational capacity for a 10-tonne recycling serviceto make black mass in the first quarter of 2022 to generate early revenue.

Memorandumsof understanding are also in place with Itochi for a plant in Japan and withStelco in Canada to take batteries from cars it recycles for steel.

The companyis studying plans for both 20,000 and 200,000-tonne capacity plants.

A thumbs-upon trial in November is the big milestone. If proven like the Canadian pilot,Neometals will be recovering 85 per cent of the batteries' starting mass, whichtheir director says future-proofs it from European rules that rise to 70 percent by 2030.

Neometals’share price has slipped over 15 per cent from its highs last month.

Nickel isalso the biggest individual product that Neometals will be recycling frombatteries. “If I take the cobalt revenue off and nothing else for any otherproduct, divide that by the production, I’m the new lowest-cost nickel producerin the world.

Twocompetitors for Neometals are Redwoods, a battery recycling start-up which inJuly raised $US700m, and Li-Cycle, listed this month on the New York disallowed from a $US52m SPAC.

Neometalsis also debt-free after the sale of its stake in Mount Marion.

Reference to TheAustralian,