GlobalSpec News Desk | June 15, 2023
Electra Battery Materials, a processor of low-carbon, ethically sourced battery materials, is committed to providing sustainable and traceable raw materials for North America’s rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) industry. To that end, the company is expanding its Ontario, Canada, refinery and developing the region’s first integrated EV Battery Materials Park. It’s part of a multiprong strategy focused on bringing the EV supply chain closer to automotive manufacturing centers in North America.
The new Battery Materials Park will feature cobalt, nickel and manganese refining; black mass and scrap battery recycling; and precursor cathode active material (pCAM) manufacturing. Operations will be built on Rockwell Automation services and technologies, including the PlantPAx Distributed Control System, PowerFlex Drive technology, motor control and industrial control services.
The facility will produce enough cobalt sulfate to supply up to 1.5 million EVs annually. Source: Electra Battery Materials
“Once we’re up and running we will be able to track our product from the very beginning — from suppliers through to our customers,” explained Renata Cardoso, vice president of sustainability and low carbon at Electra Battery Materials. “With all this data, we’ll be able to understand, to improve, and to provide progress to society.”
Such data and reporting are essential in the mining and metals industry, where both sustainability and safety are top priorities.
“It’s so important to work collaboratively with companies such as Rockwell Automation to not only be able to track indicators in the ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance] arena, but also most importantly to protect our people. Automation takes people out of risk areas and reduces health and safety exposure,” Renata said. “ESG can be a lot of things, but at the end of the day, it should be people centered. All the work we do has to do with protecting people and making their lives better.”
To date, Electra has launched the pilot phase of its new recycling plant and expects to start the commercial operation this year. It also plans to commission its cobalt sulfate refinery plant, the first of its kind in North America, in 2023. Additional refinery and production will commence in phases in 2024 and 2025.
