Altilium is pleased to announce the completion of a Maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate for its Medet mineral recovery and recycling project (ACT 3), an innovative waste-to-value facility focused on developing a sustainable European supply chain for copper and other critical minerals.

Located in Bulgaria, the integrated critical minerals recycling project includes a 2,200-hectare copper tailings site, one of the largest resources of copper tailings in Eastern Europe, as well as a brownfield SX-EW Plant which is being retrofitted to recycle old EV batteries and production scrap. The combined operations will provide a one-stop-shop for critical minerals in the European region, including copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The vast site of the Medet tailings contains approximately 110 million metric tonnes of waste material. Altilium plans to recover copper and other minerals from the tailings, using its proprietary hydrometallurgical process, transforming what was once considered waste into a critical resource for Europe’s future battery industry.

Copper is one of 17 Strategic Raw Materials identified in the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, which aims to strengthen the production, processing and recycling of raw materials in Europe, enabling the region to meet its 2030 climate goals.

As well as reducing the environmental impact of traditional mining by transforming mine tailings into essential raw materials for EV batteries, the project will also foster job creation and economic development in the region.

The Maiden Resource is a key component of Altilium’s current scoping study for the tailings project, allowing informed decisions for investment in the planned recycling facility.

Copper is an essential component in battery anode current collectors, making up around 11% of an NMC battery by weight, as well as electric motors and charging infrastructure. However, current volumes of copper production cannot meet growing demand and a significant shortfall is expected by 2030.

By recovering copper from tailings, the project will help to meet this growing demand while minimising the need for hard rock mining operations. Recycling also provides a quicker route to market than developing new copper mines, which can take decades from discovery to production.

According to a recent report by The International Energy Forum, the world will need to mine more copper in the next 30 years than it has in all of history until now, just to meet business-as-usual trends. Electrifying the entire global vehicle fleet would necessitate the opening of another 55% more new mines than are already expected to be needed.

Altilium’s planned recycling operations for EV batteries and mine tailings in the UK and Europe will provide enough copper for production of over 596,500 new EV batteries a year – enough to fuel 33% of Tesla’s entire fleet of EVs delivered in 2023.

By transforming waste such as mine tailings and old batteries into valuable resources, Altilium is developing a sustainable supply chain for low carbon battery materials, helping to deliver energy security and industrial resilience for the UK and Europe.