American Manganese testing RecycLiCo plant

American Manganese Inc., Surrey, British Columbia, has announced that it’s beginning to test Stages 3, 4 and 5 of the RecycLiCo pilot plant, an innovation for recycling cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries. 

According to a news release from American Manganese, the company reported successful extraction results for testing of Stages 1 and 2 in April. As a result, the company’s contract research lab, Kemetco Research, Richmond, British Columbia, has proceeded with the testing of final stages, which includes the purification and recovery of battery-grade-ready lithium carbonate and metal oxides (nickel, manganese, cobalt) as well as recycling of reagents and water. 

Stages 1 and 2 of the pilot plant consisted of a pretreatment and leach of the NMC and NCA (nickel, cobalt, aluminum) cathode material, which produced 500 liters of pregnant leach solution of each chemistry. According to a news release from American Manganese, Kemetco began conducting tests of the final stages using the NMC pregnant leach solution and determined flow sheet optimizations for the pilot plant with the goal of creating high purity base metals.

In addition, Kemetco has integrated a new and patentable technology to the final stages of the pilot plant process that reduces reagent consumption and byproduct production. American Manganese plans to file for the new patent following the completion of testing.