Neometals (ASX:NMT) has received a purchase order for the supply of a 10-tonne-per-day (tpd) lithium-ion battery (LIB) spoke with German luxury and commercial carmaker Mercedes-Benz.
The company reports the purchase order has been made to its Primobius GmbH battery recycling incorporated joint venture (JV) company, owned equally by Neometals and SMS Group GmbH.
Neometals, which has a $276.37 million market capitalisation, says the order was placed as part of a cooperation arrangement with Mercedes.
Under this cooperation arrangement, Primobius is responsible for the engineering, equipment supply, and installation of a fully integrated, closed-loop Mercedes LIB Recycling Plant in Kuppenheim, Germany.
This plant marks the automotive giants’ entry into the field of LIB recycling.
Neometals notes the plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes, recovering materials that will then be fed back into the production of a targeted 50,000 battery modules for installation into new Mercedes vehicles.
These materials include lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese.
Neometals also notes this plant marks a ‘significant’ Primobius milestone, being the first commercial recycling plant supply agreement to a global electric vehicle (EV) original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and the first ‘significant’ revenue for the company.
Therefore, Neometals believes this new purchase order is a ‘strong’ validation of the efficacy and scalability of the Primobius technology to meet the needs of global OEMs generallyaand the automotive industry more specifically.
With the order now placed, Neometals announces it is finalising the front-end-engineering (FEED) activities for the integrated plant and expects a separate Hub purchase order in the September quarter this year.
Spoke installation is planned to begin in Q4 this year, with commissioning set to begin in Q1 2024, says Neometals.
Commenting on the order, Neometals Chris Reed says: “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. The spoke is ready to be offered to our business development pipeline, and the Hub will soon be product-ready.
“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“
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 scale up the technology and provide an industrial-scale recycling solution to meet their future needs.”
Neometals is an ASX-listed developer working to commercialise its 3 environmentally-friendly processing technologies that produce critical and strategic battery materials at lowest quartile costs with minimal carbon footprint.
The company’s equally owned Primobius arm represents a 50:50 incorporated JV between Neometals and German global plant manufacturer SMS Group.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Neometals
