:: Lithium Australia – Re-birthing Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium Australia NL and its wholly owned nanotechnology subsidiary VSPC Limited are paving the way for a cost-effective and genuinely renewable pathway for the battery industry.

As announced to the ASX on 3 October 2019, lithium recovered from lithium-ion battery waste has been used to manufacture lithium-ferro-phosphate cathode material (an LFP battery is a type of LIB), which in turn has been used to create and electrochemically test coin-cell LIBs at VSPC’s research facility in Brisbane, Australia.

The material used was recovered from spent LIBs by Envirostream Australia, an 18.9% subsidiary of LIT. Importantly, the lithium was recovered (using proprietary LIT technology) as a lithium phosphate ('LP'), which can be used as direct feed for VSPC cathode powder production.

The coin-cell LIBs manufactured using the recycled materials exceeded test standards, thereby vindicating the entire production cycle (lithium from recycled batteries - LP - LFP cathode material - new LIBs) and demonstrating the potential for improved efficiency and reduced manufacturing costs in battery production.

LIT has also demonstrated its ability to use mine waste (lepidolite or fine spodumene) for battery production. Together, the LIT/VSPC technologies meet the ethical, social and governance standards that the community expects, and strengthen our capacity to deal with climate change by improving resource sustainability and reducing the environmental footprint of portable power.

The innovations LIT achieved in the September quarter represent a significant opportunity to develop an integrated waste processing business capable of using mine waste and spent battery materials to re-birth LIBs. LIT and Envirostream Australia are working together to establish integrated processing operations for battery materials within Australia.