Neometals (ASX:NMT) has confirmed its 50/50 JV with Europe’s SMS Group GmbH, called Primobius, is now crucial to Mercedes Benz’s battery recycling strategy.

Primobius has been seeking to incorporate Neometals’ Li-ion battery recycling capabilities into Mercedes’ larger overhead recycling strategy where European jurisdiction Germany arguably has a stricter ESG adherence than that of Australia and developing countries.

On Monday Europe time, Mercedes officially opened what the JV company calls Europe’s first battery recycling plant based on “an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process.”

A mechanical process will sort plastic, copper, iron and aluminium from the anode materials – called ‘black mass’ – that contain lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. Chemicals will be used to separate each from the other.

Many anode materials when placed in batteries actually go inside in the form of a foil.

Primobius described itself as a “cooperation partner” for the project located in Kuppenheim, south Germany. The facility has a capacity of 2,500tpa with recovered materials to produce “more than 50,000 battery modules” for new BEV Mercedes cars.

“Together we will generate high-purity, low-carbon footprint battery materials for reuse in the battery supply chain,” Primobius chief Dr. Michel Siemon said, referencing the partnership with Mercedes.

“The reality is that electric vehicles have a very large legacy CO2 footprint from the production phase owing to the whole life carbon emissions associated with the battery raw materials involved.

“The concept of electromobility can only be sustainable once we succeed in recovering valuable battery materials in an energy-efficient way. That is exactly what we do with our solutions.”

NMT last traded at 9.2cps.

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