Leveraging Aussie mining genius to drive a battery circular economy

As the globe embraces electrification, depleted batteries can be a problem – or an opportunity. These Aussie firms are leading the recycling charge.

As electrification revolution gathers pace, depleted batteries loom as both a problem and an opportunity. Spent batteries can be pollutants – or a resource to produce valuable materials.

Australian firms are stepping up, with many tapping in to mining expertise to develop recycling technologies.

As adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and cleaner energy storage increases, demand for battery metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite will also increase.

But while electric vehicles are seen as the pathway towards zero emissions their growing uptake does pose some concerns.

Most EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) use lithium-ion batteries (LiBs), which have to be disposed after they are depleted.

Many of the metals used in LIB’s will leach into surface and groundwater, which could pollute the environment, once the batteries start to break down in landfill.

However, recycling could reduce the risk of disposed LiBs causing environmental damage while also ensuring supply of critical minerals and even reducing the need for as much mining.

Association for the Battery Recycling Industry (ABRI) CEO Katharine Hole told Stockhead the groundwork needed to happen immediately to deliver a battery circular economy in the global push for zero emissions.

She said Australia needed to ready at scale to recycle the projected 3600 per cent increase in lithium battery volumes over the next decade coming from EVs and energy storage systems.

Materials produced from recycled lithium and nickel metal hydride batteries have 38 per cent lower greenhouse emissions than virgin materials, while spent batteries require significantly less resources to produce one tonne of battery grade cobalt or lithium.

Hole said Australia’s battery recycling sector was quietly leading the charge to:

• Establish itself as the leading downstream supplier of low emissions and sustainably produced minerals feedstock for battery manufacturing

• Become an innovation hub and developer of technology to support battery recycling, reuse sustainability, safety and reverse logistics.

She said the CSIRO was projecting 5 million cars in eastern Australia (connected to the National Electricity Market) between 2030 and 2035.

She said earlier studies had pointed to a projected 3600 per cent increase in lithium battery volumes over the next decade, coming from EVs and energy storage systems.

“How the numbers actually evolve remains to be seen but the key message is the change is massive and the groundwork needs to happen immediately to be ready to deliver at scale a circular economy for all batteries,” she said.