Increasing investment in battery recycling and a surge in new policies and regulation are helping to drive strong growth in critical minerals recycling, with the market’s value set to reach $200 billion by 2050, according to a new IEA report published this week.

The report, Recycling of Critical Minerals: strategies to scale up recycling and urban mining, shows that scaling up critical minerals recycling can deliver major benefits for energy security, diversification of supply and emissions reductions.

In particular, it highlights the importance of developing a strong battery recycling industry to meet the growing demands of EV and energy storage deployment, especially in those countries with limited domestic mineral resources. With significant growth in both batteries reaching end of life and manufacturing scrap, recycling will play a major role in recovering critical minerals from these sources of waste and alleviating the pressure on primary supply.

As the report notes: “Battery recycling is one of the most important secondary sources of energy transition critical minerals in the future, particularly lithium, nickel and cobalt.”

According to the IEA, the market for recycled battery metals is already growing fast with an 11-fold increase in less than a decade.

In Europe, secondary supply from recycled batteries could meet about 30% of the region’s lithium and nickel demand by 2050. This could substantially reduce reliance on imported materials as well as investment needed in domestic mining.

Overall, the growth in new mining supply for critical minerals could be brought down by between 25-40% by mid-century by scaling up recycling.

The report also stresses the need for further investment in infrastructure and greater clarity on policies and regulations to support the uptake of battery recycling. In particular, a harmonised international classification of spent batteries and black mass will be critical, given the intense global competition to secure feedstock.

Currently the majority of black mass produced in the US and Europe is shipped elsewhere for battery-grade materials to be recovered, thus providing little domestic supply security benefit.

As the UK’s only company building a full battery circularity model, from collection and recycling to production of battery-ready CAM, Altilium welcomes the IEA’s report and urges policy makers to consider its recommendations. By supporting this fast-growing industry, the UK can become a world leader in the recycling of EV batteries, ensuring a secure and sustainable domestic supply of the critical minerals that are essential for the clean energy transition.

Explore the full report: https://www.iea.org/reports/recycling-of-critical-minerals