US-based company Redwood Materials has started recovering various critical raw materials at its Berkeley County site in South Carolina. This expands the company’s activities beyond its existing campus in Nevada. According to Redwood, the facility will initially process approximately 20,000 tons of materials, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper, from used lithium-ion batteries each year. The goal is to reduce dependency on imports and utilize secondary raw materials from domestic waste, equipment, and electric vehicles.
The new facility is an initial step in the development of the planned “Battery Materials Campus” in South Carolina. Redwood plans to build one of the world’s largest centers for the recovery, refinement, and manufacture of battery materials there. Over the next ten years, Redwood aims to further expand in South Carolina and create over 1,500 new jobs.
Redwood already operates one of the largest lithium-ion battery recycling facilities in North America, located in Nevada. According to the company’s figures, it processed over 60,000 tons of materials at the Nevada facility last year. This means that approximately 90 percent of the batteries processed in North America pass through Redwood’s facilities.
The project is in response to the United States’ heavy dependence on imports of critical raw materials. These materials often come from geopolitically unstable regions or countries with tense relations with the United States. The company aims to build a national reserve of raw materials and secure the domestic supply by recovering materials from existing products, such as electric vehicles. It is estimated that U.S. electric vehicles currently contain approximately 2.25 million tons of these metals.
Source:
https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/news/redwood-begins-critical-materials-recovery-in-south-carolina/
