Neometals Ltd. announced the successful production of battery-grade nickel sulphate by its LIB recycling incorporated joint venture, Primobius GmbH ("Primobius"). Primobius is the 50:50 incorporated joint venture established by Neometals and SMS group to co-fund commercialisation of the patented LIB recycling technology ("LIB Recycling Technology"), originally developed by Neometals. The LIB Recycling Technology is based on a two-stage process to recover lithium, nickel and cobalt (amongst others) before refining into battery materials that can be reused to produce new LIB's. Nickel is the largest volume battery material produced in the Primobius process, the second most valuable product and major contributor to ensuring the lithium co-product operating costs are in the lowest quartile.

Product test-work LIB's from the German EV auto industry were processed at Primobius' Hilchenbach recycling facility in Germany. Discharged and disassembled LIB modules were processed in the shredding 'Spoke' generating an intermediate product ("Black Mass") which was then refined in the demonstration-scale hydrometallurgical refining 'Hub' to recover the cathode materials into high-purity solutions via solvent extraction and precipitation. The Black Mass is a mixture of the graphite anode and cathode active materials including lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The polished Hub nickel solution (feed) was evaporated (mother liquor) and crystallised off-site with a leading European equipment vendor. The nickel sulphate crystals were then washed and assayed by an independent third-party laboratory. The results confirmed the ability of the LIB Recycling Technology to produce battery-grade nickel sulphate and validated the battery-grade product previously produced by Neometals in its 2019 pilot trials in Canada.

Primobius' production at scale of battery-grade nickel sulphates follows recent positive lithium recovery results and leaves cobalt sulphate as the final key product to be tested. Cobalt solutions have been dispatched and the test work is expected to be completed in the current quarter. The nickel sulphate results support the marketability of the scaleable Primobius plant packages to be built by partner, and leading plant builder, SMS group GmbH and supplied under technology Licensing agreements.

Customers will be able to responsibly recycle their own LiB's, satisfying their regulatory and/or supply chain requirements, producing critical battery materials at potentially the lowest quartile operating cost and doing so with an industry leading carbon footprint.