Leading battery industry supply specialist Lithium Australia’s (ASX: LIT) subsidiary Envirostream Australia Pty Ltd has signed a MoU with South Korean company SungEel HiTech Co. Ltd for the sale of recycled battery metals.
SungEel President Mr Kang Myung Yi and Envirostream Managing Director Andrew Mackenzie shake hands after signing the offtake MoU.
SungEel has agreed that Envirostream will have exclusivity of MMD supply from Australia, allowing the Australian firm to will increase its MMD shipments to SungEel, for refining into cobalt, nickel and lithium chemicals for the production of new Lithium Ion Batteries (LIBs).
Lithium Australia Managing Director, Adrian Griffin, said Envirostream is the only company in Australia with the integrated capacity to collect, sort, shred and separate all the components of spent LIBs, making it a perfect fit with Lithium Australia’s recycling expertise.
On 16 October 2019, Lithium Australia announced it had increased its equity in Envirostream to 24%, heralding the amalgamation of the two companies’ resources to create the only entity in Australia capable of creating new battery materials from spent LIBs.
The funds Lithium Australia has injected into Envirostream are being used to expand the latter’s Melbourne battery recycling facilities.
SungEel, which recovers critical energy metals from LIB scrap, has become South Korea’s (and one of the world’s) largest battery recyclers. A leader in the development of environmentally sustainable technologies, SungEel’s research and development programmes are ongoing. SungEel’s work is vital to the implementation of a circular battery economy not just within Australia but also internationally.
Lithium Australia is working with Envirostream to roll out the latter’s Australia-wide collection network and expand its shredding and separation capacities as rapidly as possible,” Mr Griffin said.
“The MoU with SungEel provides for immediate refining of the MMD that Envirostream produces. It is expected that Envirostream’s next MMD shipment to SungEel will take place this month.
“Expanding Envirostream’s processing capacity to keep spent LIBs from landfill and export the energy metals they contain is an Australian imperative.
“Closing the loop on the production of battery materials reduces the environmental footprint of the mining and processing aspects inherent in LIB production, improves sustainability and prevents the components of spent LIBs from leaking into groundwater and oceans as a consequence of their relegation to landfill or transport to other jurisdictions.
“Together, Lithium Australia, Envirostream and SungEel can provide an immediate and viable solution to the LIB disposal crisis in this country.”