The Swiss commodity giant is getting into the recycling of e-car batteries.
(Photo: Reuters)
Zurich The Glencore mining group is getting into the recycling of old lithium-ion batteries from electric cars. To this end, the Swiss group has founded a joint venture with the British battery cell start-up Britishvolt, as both companies announced on Thursday. Glencore wants to set up a recycling plant in Great Britain. It is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2023 and will be able to recycle at least 10,000 tons of old batteries per year.
The material is said to come from a planned Britishvolt gigafactory near Blyth, north of Newcastle. Britishvolt has ambitious plans to build 30 gigawatt hours of battery cell production in the UK. The start-up has secured support from the British government, among other things. Glencore had already agreed a strategic partnership with Britishvolt to supply the battery metal cobalt in August last year.
David Brocas, chief trader for cobalt at Glencore, says: “The recycling partnership complements our long-term supply agreement of responsibly sourced cobalt.” Timon Orlob, Chief Operating Officer of Britishvolt, explains: “The joint venture will help us to achieve a sustainable battery build supply chain.”
Glencore strengthens battery metals business
The partnership with Britishvolt is a further step by Glencore to strengthen the production and trading of battery metals. The raw materials group is already one of the leading producers of copper and the world’s largest producer of cobalt. Glencore also mines other battery metals such as nickel and zinc.
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However, the company is not yet active in lithium production. In the future, the company will obtain the metal from recycling. However, the takeover of a lithium mine is not planned for the time being, Glencore boss Gary Nagle recently emphasized.
The focus on battery metals is part of Nagle’s strategy to reduce the company’s dependence on fossil fuels. Glencore mined around 103 million tonnes of coal last year, according to the recently released production report. The company is also active in the production and trading of crude oil.
However, Nagle wants to gradually phase out coal production. By 2050, Glencore aims to be CO2 neutral. In the future, revenues should increasingly come from industrial metals, which are needed for the green conversion of the economy.
More: Will the cobalt shortage become as bad as the chip crisis? New bottlenecks are looming for battery metals