Neometals Ltd’s (ASX: NMT) Primobius GmbH battery recycling incorporated joint venture company has received a Purchase Order for supply of a 10 tonne per day (tpd) Spoke with Mercedes for installation at Kuppenheim in southern Germany.
The PO was awarded as part of a cooperation arrangement with Mercedes. Under the cooperation, Primobius is responsible for the engineering, equipment supply and installation for a fully integrated, closed loop Mercedes LIB Recycling Plant.
The Mercedes LIB Recycling Plant marks the automotive giants’ entry into the field of LIB recycling.
The Mercedes LIB Recycling Plant at Kuppenheim “aims to cut resource consumption and establish closed-loop recycling of battery raw materials as (Mercedes) moves towards going electric only”. The facility is expected to have an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes, recovering materials (including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese amongst others) which will be fed back into production of a targeted 50,000 battery modules for installation into new Mercedes vehicles.
The Mercedes Spoke PO marks a significant Primobius milestone, it represents the first commercial recycling plant supply agreement to a global electric vehicle OEM and the first significant revenue.
The award is strong validation of the efficacy and scalability of the Primobius technology to meet the needs of global OEM’s generally, and the automotive industry more specifically. The Mercedes LIB Recycling Plant at Kuppenheim will showcase Primobius’ integrated recycling solution to recover and regenerate battery materials for use in new cell production.
Primobius is finalising the front-end-engineering activities for the integrated Mercedes LIB Recycling Plant and expects a separate Hub PO in the Sep Q 2023. Primobius’ immediate priority is completion of procurement and fabrication of the plant and equipment supply package. Spoke Installation is planned to commence in Q4 2023 with commissioning set to commence in Q1 2024.
“We are honoured to supply and support Mercedes in its journey to lead the closed-loop recycling of lithium batteries by automakers. Our long-term collaboration will ensure our process remains at the leading edge, able to process the latest innovations in cell chemistry, format and function,” Neometals Managing Director, Chris Reed, said.
“The Spoke is ready to be offered to our business development pipeline and the Hub will soon be product ready. I would like to thank our partner SMS and our respective teams in Primobius for their commitment to ensuring the quality of our recycling solution to meet Mercedes’ exacting requirements.
“Primobius looks forward to working with Mercedes to scaleup the technology and provide an industrial scale recycling solution to meet their future needs.”
