Mining group Eramet and environmental services group Suez have proposed plans to build an electric vehicle battery recycling plant in France by 2024. After that, the material extracted there will also be processed on site.

Eramet already produces large quantities of nickel and manganese, but mainly serves the steel industry. However, given the demand, the company's focus is now slowly transitioning to electric vehicles, including battery recycling. The first phase of the plant planned with Suez will focus on the mechanical shredding of used batteries. In this process, various metals and plastics are sorted out in several steps until what is left in the end is the so-called "black lump", which includes the cathode materials nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium and graphite. The "black lumps" are then separated into their individual components in a hydrometallurgical process so that these materials can be reused. Such a refinery will be studied in the next step, according to the statement. Starting in 2025 or 2026, the two partners hope to be able to recover battery-grade products from the black blocks.

Eramet is currently building a pre-industrial demonstration unit at its research and innovation center, paving the way for the commercial phase. There Eramet will refine its process to make it more efficient. Eramet and Suez are forming a long-term partnership. Research into the recycling process has been underway since 2019 under a project called ReLieVe (Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles).