AE Elemental opens recycling plant in Poland
Ascend Elements first announced its European expansion via the 50:50 joint venture AE Elemental in April. Less than six months later, Ascend and its Polish partner Elemental officially opened the joint plant in Zawiercie. It can process 12,000 tonnes of used lithium-ion batteries per year – a capacity that was already announced in the spring. According to the company, this corresponds to around 28,000 electric cars.
The expansion on site will continue immediately. Another plant capable of extracting lithium will be built in Zawiercie starting in autumn.
In the newly opened factory, the EV batteries will be discharged, dismantled and then crushed. The end product of this process is the so-called black mass, which contains the valuable active materials for batteries – other raw materials such as aluminium can already be separated here. The black mass will then be processed into battery-grade materials in the expansion, which will be operational by 2026.
Following the plant in Poland, the joint venture plans to build Europe’s largest recycling plant for lithium-ion batteries in Germany, with an annual capacity of 25,000 tonnes or around 58,000 electric car batteries. Ascend Elements has yet to name a possible location in the announcement of the plant opening in Poland.
“This is a significant milestone for Ascend Elements, representing our first commercial-scale battery recycling facility in Europe. We’re pleased to be working closely with Elemental Strategic Metals in this beautiful facility,” said Mike O’Kronley, CEO of Ascend Elements. “Expanding into Europe will allow us to better service our customers locally and help the industry comply with new EU rules requiring recycled material in new batteries.”
“We have come significantly closer to becoming a global leader in the market of recycling materials necessary to produce EV batteries,” said Michał Zygmunt, CEO of Elemental Strategic Metals. “As part of our contribution to the joint venture with a reputable American partner, we make available a state-of-the-art industrial downstream processing facility in Zawiercie and one of the most developed networks of waste collection points in Europe with broad knowledge and experience in the field of recycling and waste logistics.”
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