January 25, 2024: Lead recycler Ecobat confirmed on January 18 it had commissioned its first lithium recycling plant in the US.

The new Casa Grande facility in Arizona, announced in February 2023, has a capacity of around 10,000 tonnes of recycled material a year with the ability to expand capacity.

Lithium sales VP Elliott Ethridge said the new plant will sort, shred and separate battery materials to produce black mass.

Ecobat already has a lithium battery recycling plant online in Germany and another is being prepared for start-up in the UK, Ethridge said.

Technology in use at Ecobat’s facilities can process everything from portable small format batteries to EV batteries, he said.

The company has a long history in lead recycling worldwide. “It makes sense to go into lithium now but we don’t see lead diminishing. We see lithium coming on to augment a lot of spaces that lead doesn’t serve.”

Former Ecobat CEO Jimmy Herring told Batteries International in December 2021 that the company aspired to bring all kinds of chemistries under its wing to become the biggest all-round recycler in the world.

Last November, Ecobat announced it had sold its Zimco Group businesses in South Africa including lead manufacturing, recycling and chemicals firms to AutoX.

Ecobat CEO Marcus Randolph said that sale would allow the group to focus on its “core business” of battery recycling in North America and Europe.

The move followed the sale, announced in 2022, of Ecobat Resources Stolberg to commodities firm Trafigura. The sale included the Stolberg multi-metals processing plant in Germany.