Canada's Electra Forms Joint Venture for Black Mass Recycling

Electra Battery Materials

Electra Battery Materials, a Canadian battery metals startup, has partnered with the Indigenous-owned Three Fires Group, an economic development agency, to establish a lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Ontario. The plant will focus on extracting black mass from end-of-life battery scrap, which will then be processed at Electra's future refinery. This JV, named Aki Battery Recycling, assigns Three Fires Group the responsibility of raising funds and selecting the facility's location, while Electra will provide technical and commercial leadership.

The black mass, a combination of cathode and anode materials, will be separated at the facility and sold to Electra for further processing. The goal is to recover critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite, which can be reused in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries.

This project marks an important step in Electra’s strategy to create a closed-loop supply chain for battery materials across North America. Electra is prioritizing the completion of its cobalt sulfate refinery and will soon ramp up its black mass recycling operations. Beyond this, Electra plans to build a nickel sulfate plant and a battery precursor cathode active material facility in Canada, alongside its ongoing development of the Iron Creek cobalt-copper project in Idaho.