Critical Minerals Recyclers

Recycling is increasingly recognized as a strategic pillar of critical minerals supply security. As millions of electric vehicle batteries, consumer electronics, wind turbines, and industrial components approach end of life, the metals and minerals embedded in these products represent a growing secondary supply source. Companies that can efficiently recover lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, and other critical materials from waste streams stand to play a pivotal role in reducing dependence on primary mining and the geopolitical risks associated with concentrated extraction and processing. The recycling sector for critical minerals is still maturing, but it has attracted billions of dollars in investment and is scaling rapidly.

Battery Recycling Leaders

Redwood Materials, founded in 2017 by former Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel, has emerged as one of the most prominent battery recycling companies in North America. Headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, Redwood Materials processes end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap to recover copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium. The company has built partnerships with major automakers and battery manufacturers to secure feedstock and has announced plans to produce cathode active materials and anode copper foil, creating a closed-loop supply chain for the battery industry. Redwood Materials has raised over $1 billion in funding and is constructing a large-scale facility near Charleston, South Carolina.

Li-Cycle Holdings, a Canadian company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, operates a network of spoke-and-hub recycling facilities. Its spoke facilities use a proprietary hydrometallurgical process to shred and process batteries into black mass, a concentrated intermediate product containing valuable metals. The black mass is then shipped to centralized hub facilities for further refining into battery-grade materials. Li-Cycle operates spoke facilities in Ontario, New York, Alabama, and Arizona, and has been developing a major hub facility in Rochester, New York. The company's approach enables distributed collection while centralizing the capital-intensive refining stage.

European Recyclers

Umicore, the Belgian materials technology and recycling group, is one of the world's most established critical mineral recyclers. Umicore's recycling division in Hoboken, Belgium, processes complex waste streams including spent batteries, electronic scrap, and industrial residues to recover over 20 different metals including cobalt, nickel, copper, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium. The company's integrated smelter and refinery can handle a wide range of input materials, giving it flexibility that many newer competitors lack. Umicore also operates a battery recycling facility in Antwerp dedicated to lithium-ion batteries and is expanding capacity to handle the growing wave of end-of-life EV batteries expected in the late 2020s.

Fortum, the Finnish energy company, has developed battery recycling capabilities through its subsidiary in Harjavalta, Finland. The company uses a low-CO2 hydrometallurgical process that achieves recovery rates above 80 percent for critical metals. Northvolt, the Swedish battery manufacturer, has integrated recycling into its business model through its Revolt program, which recovers materials from production scrap and end-of-life batteries at its facilities in Sweden. BASF and Johnson Matthey have also announced battery recycling initiatives in Europe, reflecting the broader trend of established chemical and materials companies entering the recycling space.

Chinese Recyclers

China has developed the world's largest battery recycling industry, driven by the early adoption of electric vehicles and supportive government policies mandating producer responsibility for end-of-life batteries. GEM Co. Ltd., based in Shenzhen, is one of China's largest recyclers of cobalt, nickel, and other battery metals, processing both manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries. Brunp Recycling, a subsidiary of CATL (the world's largest battery manufacturer), operates large-scale recycling facilities that feed recovered materials back into CATL's battery production. Huayou Cobalt has also integrated recycling into its operations, processing battery scrap alongside primary cobalt concentrates at its refining complexes. China's recycling ecosystem benefits from proximity to the world's largest battery manufacturing base and a mature collection infrastructure for used batteries.

Rare Earth and Magnet Recyclers

Recycling rare earth elements from permanent magnets is technically challenging but strategically important given the extreme concentration of primary rare earth processing in China. Urban Mining Company, based in Texas, uses a proprietary process to recycle rare earth magnets from hard disk drives and other sources, producing recycled NdFeB magnets without the need for traditional rare earth separation. Cyclic Materials, a Canadian start-up, is developing hydrometallurgical processes to recover rare earth elements from magnets and electronic waste. HyProMag in the United Kingdom is commercializing hydrogen-based processing technology for magnet recycling, developed at the University of Birmingham. These companies are still operating at relatively small scale, but their technologies could become increasingly important as volumes of end-of-life EVs and wind turbines grow. For more detail on the technical challenges involved, see magnet recycling.

E-Waste and Industrial Scrap Processors

Electronic waste represents a significant source of critical minerals including gold, silver, palladium, platinum, copper, indium, gallium, and rare earths. Companies like Aurubis in Germany, Boliden in Sweden, and Sims Limited in Australia operate large-scale smelters and refineries that process e-waste alongside primary concentrates. Enviro Metals in Canada and Mint Innovation in New Zealand are developing novel biotechnology approaches to e-waste recycling that use bacterial processes to selectively leach valuable metals. The e-waste recycling sector faces ongoing challenges around collection rates, hazardous material handling, and the economics of recovering small quantities of dispersed metals from complex products.

Scaling Challenges and Outlook

The critical minerals recycling industry faces several structural challenges as it scales. Feedstock availability remains constrained because the largest wave of end-of-life EV batteries is not expected until the late 2020s and 2030s, meaning current operations rely heavily on manufacturing scrap and consumer electronics waste. Technology risk is significant, as many companies are scaling novel hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes for the first time. Economics are sensitive to commodity prices, with low lithium or cobalt prices potentially undermining the business case for recycling. Despite these challenges, the strategic importance of secondary supply, regulatory mandates like the EU Battery Regulation requiring minimum recycled content, and the ESG preferences of automakers and consumers are creating powerful tailwinds for the sector. For a broader perspective on the role of recycling in critical minerals supply, see recycling and circularity.