£8.1 million partnership to accelerate Lithium-ion Battery project in the UK

Mint Innovation, in collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover, LiBatt Recycling, and WMG at the University of Warwick, secures £8.1 million to accelerate Lithium-ion Battery project

Summary

• Mint Innovation, in collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), LiBatt Recycling, a subsidiary company of Recyclus Group, and WMG at the University of Warwick, secures £8.1 million to advance its lithium-ion battery project, with £4.05 million funded by the UK Department for Business and Trade through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC).  

• The project will prove Mint’s low-carbon, hydrometallurgical black mass refining technology at demonstration scale, with recycled critical materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt produced as part of an onshore circular battery supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs).  

• This initiative is part of the £2.5billion DRIVE35 programme supporting UK EV manufacturing supply chain and creating jobs in a sustainable industry.

Clean tech innovator Mint Innovation secures £8.1 million in fresh funding to expand its technology platform to recover lithium, nickel and cobalt from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. Undertaken in collaboration with industry and academic partners JLR, LiBatt Recycling a subsidiary of Recyclus Group, and WMG at the University of Warwick, the project aims to prove Mint’s low-carbon hydrometallurgical black mass refining technology at demonstration scale, helping the UK automotive industry with onshore and circular supply of lithium, cobalt and nickel critical for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

According to the APC, an estimated 235 kilotons of EV battery waste will be generated in the UK by 2040. Yet currently, the UK lacks industrial-scale recyclers capable of producing verified recycled battery materials.

This project is part of the UK Government’s DRIVE35 programme, which is investing £2.5 billion to power the UK automotive industry and job creation, helping secure its domestic supply chains and meet ambitious net-zero targets through innovative, clean solutions.  

“Our team is incredibly excited to partner with JLR, LiBatt Recycling, Recyclus Group, and WMG in this innovative consortium. Together, we’re able to advance zero emission automative manufacturing at a faster pace, pioneering sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling solutions to secure onshore supply of green materials critical for the UK’s rapidly growing EV industry”, says Dr Will Barker, CEO of Mint Innovation.  

Each partner within the consortium has a role to play in ensuring a sustainable lifecycle for lithium-ion batteries, from end-of-life battery supply and processing through to integrating recycled materials into new batteries, closing the loop and increasing supply chain resilience.  

“This new investment underlines the commitment from Government to secure advanced manufacturing in the UK. I am pleased that the APC, Zenzic, and its delivery partners are here to facilitate a new wave of funding in the automotive industry, supporting innovation, driving scale-up, and enabling transformation." says Ian Constance, CEO of APC UK.  

“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Mint Innovation, JLR, and WMG on this ground-breaking project, which marks a major milestone in advancing the UK’s circular battery economy. Securing £4.05 million through the APC is not only a strong vote of confidence in the consortium, but also in the role innovative recycling technologies will play in securing domestic supply of critical materials. Mint’s scalable, low-carbon black mass refining process  is exactly what the industry needs, and we believe this project will deliver tangible results that move us significantly closer to realising our cradle-to-cradle vision — where end-of-life batteries become the foundation for the next generation,” says Robin Brundle, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, Recyclus Group.  

“We’re incredibly excited to be working in this consortium to manufacture lithium-ion battery materials from recycled sources. Our advanced processes aim to not only deliver high-quality materials that meet the rigorous performance demands of the modern battery applications but also help to reduce our reliance on virgin materials, addressing critical supply chain challenges and advancing circularity to pave the way for more widespread and sustainable electrification.” says Dr Beth Johnston, Assistant Professor at WMG.

Building on Mint’s success in commercialising low-carbon technology for refining metals like gold and copper from waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) in Sydney and soon to be Texas, Barker says that this initiative is a pivotal step in broadening the technology platform to recover a wider range of metals from alternative waste products.  

This project will take place in the West Midlands in the UK and will be delivered over three years, ending in 2028.

About Mint Innovation

Mint Innovation, a leading cleantech company accelerating circular green metals into local economies, uses naturally occurring biomass, hydrometallurgy and smart chemistry to carefully extract green metals from waste. Mint Innovation launched the world’s first commercial scale PCB recovery technology in Sydney 2022, and has plans to scale the technology globally, and expand technology to break down other harmful waste streams.  

Mint's patented technology has been announced at COP28 as a runner-up in the 'Outstanding Projects' category by Mission Innovation's Net-Zero Awards and won the 2023 InnovationAus awards for Advanced Manufacturing and Energy and Renewables. Mint was also recognised as the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer in 2022.

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