Tag Archives: EV Batteries

#Nigeria Bets Big on the Battery Supply Chain with #WestAfrica’s Largest #Lithium Processing Plant

Posted on by Leave a comment

For decades, many African countries have exported their raw minerals while the real economic gains from manufacturing were captured elsewhere. Nigeria is now taking steps to change that narrative. The country has commissioned what is being described as West Africa’s largest lithium processing plant, signaling its ambition to move beyond being a supplier of raw materials and become an important player in the global battery supply chain. As worldwide demand for lithium continues to rise, driven by the rapid growth of electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and consumer electronics, this investment could mark a turning point for Nigeria’s industrial future.

The new facility, located in Endo Community in Nasarawa State, is one of the country’s most significant industrial projects in recent years. With the capacity to process 6,000 metric tonnes of lithium ore each day and approximately 3 million metric tonnes annually, it is expected to become the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa. Instead of exporting raw lithium ore for processing overseas, Nigeria intends to refine the mineral domestically, allowing the country to capture far greater economic value before the products reach international markets.

Lithium has become one of the world’s most strategic minerals because it is essential for manufacturing rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops, energy storage systems, and a growing range of renewable energy technologies. As governments and industries accelerate the transition toward cleaner energy, global demand for lithium is expected to remain strong for years to come. Nigeria hopes to capitalize on this trend by positioning itself not only as a producer of lithium but also as an important participant in the global battery manufacturing ecosystem.

During the commissioning ceremony, President Bola Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, emphasized the importance of moving beyond the long-standing practice of exporting raw minerals. The government’s broader strategy focuses on processing critical minerals within Nigeria, expanding domestic manufacturing, creating skilled employment opportunities, strengthening industrial ecosystems, and increasing the value of the country’s exports. By processing minerals locally instead of shipping them abroad in their raw form, officials believe Nigeria can generate significantly greater economic returns while accelerating industrial development.

The economic impact of the project is already becoming evident. According to the company operating the facility, the investment has created more than 1,000 direct jobs and over 2,000 indirect jobs. Beyond employment, the project is expected to stimulate infrastructure development, encourage technology transfer, strengthen local supplier networks, improve workforce skills, and attract additional manufacturing investment. If these expectations are realized, the lithium processing plant could become one of Nigeria’s most important industrial developments outside the country’s oil and gas sector.

Nigeria’s strategy also reflects a broader shift taking place across Africa. Increasingly, governments are introducing policies designed to ensure that more value from the continent’s natural resources remains within Africa. Zimbabwe has prohibited exports of unprocessed lithium, while Namibia has restricted exports of selected unprocessed critical minerals. Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia are working together to develop regional battery value chains built around their abundant copper and cobalt resources. These initiatives share a common objective: transforming Africa from a supplier of raw materials into a producer of higher-value industrial products.

The commissioning of the lithium processing plant comes shortly after Nigeria announced the discovery of what officials described as a world-class polymetallic mineral province in Kaduna State. The discovery reportedly contains significant deposits of lithium, gold, nickel, copper, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements. Combined with the country’s growing processing capacity, these resources could strengthen Nigeria’s long-term ambition of becoming a regional hub for battery materials and advanced manufacturing.

Nigeria’s vision extends well beyond processing lithium alone. According to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, the government’s long-term objective is to establish industries capable of producing lithium batteries, electric vehicles, mobile phones, solar panels, and other renewable energy technologies. Rather than exporting raw minerals and importing finished products, Nigeria hopes to build a complete industrial value chain that supports manufacturing, innovation, and technological advancement.

The project also highlights China’s expanding role in Africa’s critical minerals sector. Diamond New Energy, the company operating the plant, says its investment includes not only mining and mineral processing but also infrastructure development, workforce training, and partnerships with local communities. The project reflects a broader trend of Chinese investment supporting mineral processing and industrial development across the continent as demand for critical minerals continues to grow.

Globally, the timing of Nigeria’s investment is significant. As geopolitical tensions reshape international supply chains, manufacturers are seeking more diverse and reliable sources of critical minerals. Countries are increasingly looking beyond traditional suppliers to secure materials essential for the clean energy transition. If Nigeria successfully expands its lithium processing capacity and eventually develops battery manufacturing capabilities, it could become an increasingly important supplier to global clean energy industries.

For decades, African economies have largely exported raw minerals while higher-value manufacturing took place elsewhere. Nigeria is attempting to reverse that model by investing in local processing, industrial development, and advanced manufacturing. Whether this ambitious strategy ultimately succeeds will depend on continued investment, reliable infrastructure, supportive government policies, and sustained global demand for battery materials. Nevertheless, the commissioning of West Africa’s largest lithium processing plant represents an important milestone and signals Nigeria’s determination to secure a stronger position in the rapidly expanding global battery economy.

Source: Business Insider Africa

From #BlackMass to New Batteries: How #China Is Closing the #EV Recycling Loop – Digital Tracing

Posted on by Leave a comment

As electric vehicles (EVs) become increasingly common on roads around the world, a new challenge is emerging: what happens to their batteries when they reach the end of their useful life?

China, the world’s largest EV market, is already facing this question at scale. Industry estimates show that nearly 400,000 tonnes of retired EV batteries were generated in 2025, and that figure is expected to exceed one million tonnes annually by 2030.

Rather than viewing these batteries as waste, Chinese recycling companies are treating them as valuable urban mines. At a large recycling facility operated by Brunp Recycling, a subsidiary of battery giant CATL, discarded batteries are being transformed into high-quality materials that can be used to manufacture the next generation of EV batteries.

Giving Old Batteries a Second Life

At Brunp’s integrated circular economy industrial park in Yichang, Hubei Province, trucks carrying retired EV batteries arrive every day. Each battery pack is carefully inspected, sorted, and recorded before entering the recycling process.

Most of these batteries have degraded to less than 80 percent of their original capacity. While they can no longer deliver the performance required for modern electric vehicles, they still contain valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, and aluminum.

In the past, weak oversight sometimes allowed retired batteries to re-enter the market through unauthorized channels, creating safety and environmental risks. To address this challenge, China launched a national traceability platform in 2026 that tracks every power battery throughout its lifecycle—from manufacturing and installation to retirement and recycling.

This digital tracking system helps ensure batteries are processed by certified recyclers and gives consumers greater confidence that their retired batteries will be handled responsibly.

Inside the Recycling Process

Once verified, battery packs move onto automated dismantling lines where robotic systems remove protective casings and separate battery cells.

Safety is a critical concern. Before further processing, each battery cell undergoes complete discharge to eliminate any remaining electrical energy.

The cells are then crushed into small fragments and sent through a series of specialized treatments. High-temperature pyrolysis under a nitrogen atmosphere helps break down materials while preventing unwanted reactions. Additional screening and sorting processes recover metals such as copper and aluminum for direct reuse.

What remains is a fine black powder known throughout the industry as black mass.

The Value Hidden in Black Mass

Black mass is the most valuable output of battery recycling. It contains concentrated amounts of critical battery minerals, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese.

Recovering these materials efficiently has long been one of the biggest technical challenges in battery recycling.

At Brunp’s hydrometallurgical facility, black mass is mixed with specially formulated acidic solutions inside large reaction tanks. The metals dissolve into a complex liquid mixture, creating what engineers sometimes call a “metal soup.”

Advanced separation technologies then isolate and purify each metal. According to the company, its direct recycling process achieves recovery rates of 99.6 percent for nickel, cobalt, and manganese, while lithium recovery reaches 96.5 percent.

These recovery rates represent a significant improvement over traditional recycling methods, which often suffered from lower efficiency, higher energy consumption, and larger volumes of waste residue.

Turning Waste into New Battery Materials

The purified materials are ultimately converted into battery-grade lithium carbonate and iron phosphate—two key ingredients used in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

One of the most impressive aspects of the operation is its integration with nearby manufacturing facilities. Once regenerated, the materials are transported directly to neighboring plants where they are processed into new cathode materials for battery production.

The entire transformation—from retired battery pack to regenerated cathode raw material—takes only about one week.

Even more remarkable, batteries produced using recycled materials can perform at levels comparable to those made from newly mined resources. According to engineers at the facility, these batteries can support faster charging speeds, longer driving ranges, and lower-carbon manufacturing processes.

Building a Circular Battery Economy

Beyond recovering materials, the recycling process is helping improve future battery designs.

Engineers continuously share lessons learned from dismantling and material recovery with battery manufacturers. This feedback loop allows designers to create batteries that are easier to disassemble, recycle, and process at the end of their lives.

Recommendations include simplifying battery pack structures for automated dismantling and optimizing material compositions to improve future recovery and purification rates.

This approach creates a true circular economy: batteries are designed for recycling, recycled into raw materials, and then transformed into new batteries that can eventually re-enter the cycle.

The Road Ahead

As EV adoption continues to accelerate globally, battery recycling will become a critical pillar of the clean energy transition.

Recycling reduces dependence on newly mined raw materials, lowers environmental impacts, improves resource security, and helps create a sustainable supply chain for future battery production.

The journey from discarded battery to new energy storage device may begin with a substance called black mass, but it ultimately demonstrates something far more valuable: how innovation can transform waste into a strategic resource for a greener future.

This version is suitable for publication on a corporate sustainability blog, energy industry website, or technology news platform.