Electra Battery Materials (ELBM.V), a Toronto, Ontario-based processor of low-carbon, ethically sourced battery materials, announced today that it was continuing to make progress on its cobalt refinery located north of Toronto, Ontario.
The company reiterated that it was on track to meet project deadlines, including the launch of a black mass recycling demonstration, and capital cost guidance released with its Q2 2022 financial report.
To date, Electra has completed 85% of testing of existing brownfield equipment for recommissioning as well as 85% of all procurement. Ninety percent of the project’s detailed engineering has been finished along with 75% of the erection of the solvent extraction building, and major solvent equipment will start to be placed by the end of October.
Foundations and structural steel work continue for the crystallizer plant, and key processing equipment, including falling film evaporator and crystallizer plant vessels, are scheduled to be installed in early November.
Trent Mell, CEO of Electra Battery Metals, commented, “Electra continues to build momentum. On the heels of our commercial agreement with LG Energy Solution announced last week, we are excited by the continued progress at our refinery and the prospects of our upcoming black mass recycling demonstration plant. Building upon successful metallurgical testing and engineering work, and the receipt and installation of key pieces of equipment, we anticipate launching our battery recycling demonstration plant at the Ontario refinery site this fall.”
Regarding the black mass recycling demonstration, the company has completed process development and engineering on the recycling black mass material, a byproduct generated by the end-of-life electric vehicle battery recycling and other recycled lithium-based battery sources.
Black mass samples have been sourced from suppliers in Europe and North America, and Electra has studied feed characteristics and developed a hydrometallurgical process route to recover contained lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and graphite.
Electra is retrofitting its existing refinery to accommodate its black mass process and plans to conduct large-scale bulk runs to establish the process parameters, generate data for further optimization, and validate recoveries and quality of various marketable products.
The company intends to process up to 75 tonnes of material in a batch mode using the facilities of the refinery. Then Electra will use a hydrometallurgical process to treat the resulting black mass. The process has a low-carbon footprint and produces stable non-acid-generating tailings. This will result in a reduced environmental impact while meeting or exceeding water discharge effluent federally/provincially mandated criteria.
Electra currently trades at $4.00 CAD per share for a market cap of $131 million.
