Electra, a listed Canadian battery material recycler, has announced signing an offtake agreement with Glencore AG, a multinational commodity trading and mining company, to supply the latter with nickel and cobalt products over 2023–2024 on market-based terms. 

Electra will supply the nickel and cobalt products from a battery recycling demonstration plant that is expected to be commissioned in 2023 in Toronto. The facility uses hydrometallurgical refinery technology to refine black mass feed that is generated from the recycling of lithium-ion batteries into battery-grade nickel and cobalt products. 

The company is building its battery material park in phases, which involves building production plants for cobalt, copper, nickel, and graphite sulfates alongside a battery precursor material plant. The first phase is to build a cobalt sulfate refinery plant, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The cobalt and nickel sulfates facilities are initially expected to supply raw materials sufficient for over 1.5 million electric vehicles per year. 

The company also reported that it is looking to sign offtake contracts for lithium, copper, and graphite products as well.

Founded in 2011, Electra is focusing on building a fully integrated and localized battery materials park that will be equipped with production plants to produce key battery materials, a large-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility, and a battery precursor materials production center. Via the facility, the company is looking to supply recycled battery-grade materials to the automotive industry. According to the company, there are 360,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery waste available for recycling as of date.