AFR Article - Former BHP CFO raises millions for metals recycling plant
We're proud to share that Climate Tech Partners has invested in Renewable Metals, the battery recycling start-up led by former BHP CFO Peter Beaven.
The A$12 million round will fund engineering for Renewable Metals' first commercial plant in NSW's Hunter Valley, using a lower-cost, lower-carbon hydrometallurgical process to recover critical minerals from end-of-life batteries.
Today, most end-of-life batteries are still shredded and exported to Asia. As EV adoption grows, boosted by geopolitical uncertainty, along with home batteries and grid battery storage to enable greater renewable penetration, better recycling options are needed. At the same time, onshore recycling is becoming a critical energy security priority with Europe, Australia and the US increasingly moving toward recycled-content mandates and black-mass export bans.
Renewable Metals, led by Luan Atkinson and Mark Urbani, chaired by former BHP CFO Peter Beaven, has developed a patented alkali-based process recovering 95%+ of key battery materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese). It can also process fast-growing battery chemistries (e.g. LFP) that competitors struggle to recycle economically. Its modular design is expected to operate at roughly half the cost of incumbents, directly processing whole battery packs without disassembly. Their novel approach can also be retrofitted in existing plants to increase productivity and reduce operating costs.One of the reasons we invested was Renewable Metals’ technology helps secure critical-mineral supply chains close to where they're needed. And, in line with CTP’s corporate-partnership model, our due diligence included discussions with renewable and grid battery developers, insurers and recyclers: validating the benefit of a cost-effective, onshore solution.
As our partner Patrick Sieb put it: "A number of our corporate partners already need to deal with defective or damaged batteries and are actively planning for end-of-life batteries in their portfolios."
Battery recycling is becoming a critical sovereign capability and we're excited to be part of building it here in Australia.
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