U.S.-based Cirba Solutions will invest more than $300 million in a lithium-ion EV battery recycling plant in South Carolina that will produce materials to power over 500,000 batteries every year, the company said. Global demand for lithium batteries has boomed as more customers opt for electric cars and energy storage systems and governments seek to reduce their carbon footprint.
Operations are expected to begin in late 2024 at the 200-acre plant located near Columbia, South Carolina in Richland County, Cirba said, adding it will create over 300 jobs.
The plant will focus on processing end-of-life hybrid and electric-vehicle batteries, gigafactory scrap and end-of-life consumer batteries to extract critical materials like nickel, cobalt and lithium.