The four-acre facility – known as ACT 3 – will have the capacity to process 24,000 EVs annually.
This will include recovering critical battery minerals including lithium, nickel and graphite.
The minerals will be recovered using Altilium’s trademarked EcoCathode process which turns battery scrap into Nickel Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP) and Lithium Sulphate to be used for the domestic production of battery cathodes.
The engineering design work is being completed by global engineering consultancy Hatch.
The project will provide a scale-up pathway for the construction of Altilium’s planned ACT 4 mega-scale refinery later this decade. It will focus on delivering battery metal salts, P-CAM and cathode active material (CAM) to UK gigafactories.
ACT 1 saw the development of Altilium’s Innovation Centre in Devon where the EcoCathode process was created and ACT 2 was a pilot line with the capacity to process one EV battery a day.
According to the UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC), the UK is expected to need up to 40% of current global lithium production and up to 30% of current global graphite production by 2030.
Dr Christian Marston, Altilium COO, said: “Our ACT 3 site marks the next phase in Altilium’s mission to close the loop on battery materials here in Britain.
“We are proud to be building this scale-up facility here in Plymouth, which will be a cornerstone of the UK’s EV battery supply chain.
“This is about taking a strategic and incremental approach to scaling a vital new industry, one that ensures value stays in the country and creates long-term skilled green jobs.”
Currently battery recycling in the UK focuses primarily on the shredding of batteries and black mass production.
Altilium is looking to expand this focus by keeping battery metals like lithium and nickel in the UK through advanced hydrometallurgical refining.
ACT 3 follows significant investments into the recycler in the first quarter of 2025, including £2.5 million from global bank Mizuho Bank and £4 million from Japanese trading and investment group Marubeni Corporation.
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