£8.1 million funding secured for lithium-ion battery recycling project in the West Midlands

Mint Innovation has announced a £8.1 million funding agreement to advance a lithium-ion battery recycling project in the West Midlands. The initiative is a collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), LiBatt Recycling, a subsidiary of Recyclus Group, and WMG at the University of Warwick. Half of the total funding, £4.05 million, is being provided by the UK Department for Business and Trade through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC).

The project will demonstrate Mint Innovation’s low-carbon hydrometallurgical process for refining black mass, a material derived from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. The process will extract critical materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, supporting a domestic and circular battery supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs). This work is part of the UK Government’s £2.5 billion DRIVE35 programme, which is focused on developing the UK EV manufacturing supply chain and supporting job creation in the sector.

According to the APC, the UK is expected to generate 235 kilotons of EV battery waste by 2040. At present, there are no industrial-scale facilities in the UK producing verified recycled battery materials. The consortium aims to close this gap by demonstrating a scalable recycling and refining process.

Dr Will Barker, CEO of Mint Innovation which is based in Auckland NZ, said: “Our team is incredibly excited to partner with JLR, LiBatt Recycling, Recyclus Group, and WMG in this innovative consortium. Together, we’re able to advance zero emission automative manufacturing at a faster pace, pioneering sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling solutions to secure onshore supply of green materials critical for the UK’s rapidly growing EV industry.”

The partners each contribute to different stages of the lithium-ion battery lifecycle, from sourcing end-of-life batteries to processing and reintegrating the recovered materials into new batteries.

Ian Constance, CEO of APC UK, said: “This new investment underlines the commitment from Government to secure advanced manufacturing in the UK. I am pleased that the APC, Zenzic, and its delivery partners are here to facilitate a new wave of funding in the automotive industry, supporting innovation, driving scale-up, and enabling transformation.”

Robin Brundle, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Recyclus Group, commented: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Mint Innovation, JLR, and WMG on this ground-breaking project, which marks a major milestone in advancing the UK’s circular battery economy. Securing £4.05 million through the APC is not only a strong vote of confidence in the consortium, but also in the role innovative recycling technologies will play in securing domestic supply of critical materials. Mint’s scalable, low-carbon black mass refining process is exactly what the industry needs, and we believe this project will deliver tangible results that move us significantly closer to realising our cradle-to-cradle vision — where end-of-life batteries become the foundation for the next generation.”

Dr Beth Johnston, Assistant Professor at WMG, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be working in this consortium to manufacture lithium-ion battery materials from recycled sources. Our advanced processes aim to not only deliver high-quality materials that meet the rigorous performance demands of the modern battery applications but also help to reduce our reliance on virgin materials, addressing critical supply chain challenges and advancing circularity to pave the way for more widespread and sustainable electrification.”

Mint Innovation has previously commercialised low-carbon metal recovery processes for materials such as gold and copper from waste printed circuit boards at its Sydney facility, with plans to expand operations to Texas. The new project, scheduled to run until 2028, marks a further step in the company’s efforts to recover a wider range of metals from alternative waste sources.

Image source Mint.bio