Altilium Metals holds a multiyear concession agreement to extract minerals from the MEDET copper tailings and a solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plant in Bulgaria.

Altilium Metals appointed leading Engineering Consultant Hatch Ltd for the retrofit of the MEDET hydrometallurgical plant for the recycling of end-of-life electric vehicle batteries. Hatch has presented their interim commercial and engineering report, with the final report being presented 15th July 2022.
Starting Q1 2023 under the recommendations presented by Hatch and as stage 1 of the retrofit, Altilium Metals will process battery waste from 16,000 MT electric vehicles or 8,000 MT of “black mass”.

The plant will produce 3,000 MT of MHP (Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate) and 1500 MT Lithium Sulphate per year. In recent years we have seen the MHP market evolve from an intermediate to a primary feed in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries so initial focus will be supply of this important battery raw material.

In the future and as a Stage 2 retrofit, the focus will be on processing an additional 8,000 MT black mass producing circa 5,700 MT battery grade Nickel Cobalt Sulphate and 1,700 MT Lithium Carbonate.

Battery production will continue to rely heavily on mined materials to meet the growing demand for renewable energy storage, however battery recycling or “urban mining” will play an important part in supplying a portion of these materials to enable a closed-loop supply chain.