Cirba Solutions joins the battery belt in South Carolina

US battery recycler Cirba Solutions is investing $300 mn in a new recycling factory in South Carolina. The company, which counts GM among its customers, plans to start construction near Columbia in Richland County this year and begin operations by the end of 2024.

The South Carolina plant will be the eighth factory by Cirba Solutions in North America and the fourth facility inside the “Battery Belt” – an area spanning southern states like Georgia where more than 15 new lithium-ion battery gigafactories or expansions have been announced since 2021 – more on this below.

The company informs thatCirba has slated over $1 billion in the next five years to expand the recycling infrastructure required to meet the growing demand for critical materials needed for EV batteries.

At its new “flagship plant”, Cirba will extract materials such as nickel, cobalt and lithium from end-of-life batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles and electronic equipment and scrap from battery factories. Processing the materials shall be enough for more than 500,000 EV batteries annually, so Cirba.

The over 200-acre battery materials campus will create over 300 jobs near Columbia in Richland County.

“The State of South Carolina and Richland County have been tremendous partners in supporting Cirba Solutions’ strategy to build a sustainable battery materials supply chain,” said David Klanecky, President and CEO of Cirba Solutions.

“South Carolina has worked hard to create a business environment where the electric vehicle industry can thrive, and with announcements like this, it is most certainly paying off,” said South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster.

South Carolina has indeed scored a slew of manufacturing deals lately. Albemarle only announced today it would build a lithium refinery in the state by late 2024. From 2026, electric cars from the new Volkswagen brand will also come out of South Carolina. Proterra and Envision AESC plan to build batteries in the state, and the list goes on. To stay within the recycling topic, Redwood’s ‘Battery Material Campus’ shall not be left unmentioned.

Interestingly enough, South Carolina, like Georgia, another critical state in the battery belt, is under Republican rule but has managed to benefit immensely from climate spending released under the current Democrat-led government.

cirbasolutions.com, theguardian.com (background battery belt)