Chinese battery materials producer GEM Co will invest 310 million yuan ($48 million) in a project to make 100,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade nickel and cobalt from recycling in central China’s Hubei province, it said on Tuesday.
The investment – which GEM said was being made to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party – comes as the company looks to roughly triple its annual battery precursor production to over 400,000 tonnes by 2025 to meet burgeoning demand from the electric-vehicle sector.
The project in the city of Jingmen, where GEM has an existing recycling base, will produce three battery-grade chemicals – nickel sulphate, cobalt sulphate and cobalt chloride – in equal measure, GEM said in a stock exchange filing.
The company, which is also pursuing a smelting project in Indonesia that will make battery-grade nickel and cobalt, said the Jingmen plant would take nine months to construct, with the funds to come from its own coffers and from bank loans.
The partnership is for reusing and recycling the Li-ion batteries of EVs in India after their end-of-life. Attero has more than 30 global patents for recycling technologies.
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