Inside a $1.1B deal to reshore critical minerals refining

The U.S. and Europe have a nickel problem. The critical mineral is used in everything from batteries and missiles to electronics and steel. And yet, the two regions have struggled to mine and refine it largely due to permitting issues and waste concerns.

Indonesia and China dominate the refining process. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s apparent that Chinese companies control around 75% of the nickel refining capacity in Indonesia, too, giving the country control of more than half the world’s supply.

As relations with China have soured, “a lot of companies are starting to really look at how do we how do we start to refine here in the U.S.?” Megan O’Connor, co-founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, told TechCrunch.

O’Connor’s startup has been developing an electrochemical system to refine nickel and other critical minerals, including cobalt, copper, and rare earths. Just over a year ago, the company started production at a facility in Ohio that can process up to 3,100 metric tons of scrap. Now, Nth Cycle has a $1.1 billion agreement with commodity trader Trafigura to quadruple that amount.

The new deal signals a shift in how companies are evaluating their metal supply chains — and how technology can change them.

Today, it’s not just metal refining that happens overseas, but recycling, too. As batteries reach their end of life, they’re shipped elsewhere for processing. “These are really valuable resources that we’re currently mostly shipping to China. You don’t necessarily want to be giving up that value material and then having to buy it back,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor hasn’t come to this realization alone. Another company, Westwin Elements, operates a small refinery in Oklahoma and is trying to expand with a new facility in Georgia, though it has run into opposition there.

Nth Cycle thinks the solution is its modular, electric system. “You can’t translate traditional, centralized refining that works really well overseas, in all parts of Asia,” O’Connor said. “You translate that here and it’s just too capital intensive.”

The startup works with recyclers to obtain black mass — a mishmash of metals from shredded batteries — and other sources of nickel like catalysts from the oil and gas industry. It then feeds it into its electrochemical system that’s about five to ten times smaller than a traditional refinery. Because the system is smaller, Nth Cycle says it cuts capital expenditures, allowing it to make money sooner.

“Our system can can operate profitably at as low as 6,000 metric tons per year,” O’Connor said.

That low figure is important. Though eventually there will be a tidal wave of EV batteries that need to be recycled and their metal refined, it hasn’t materialized yet and is unlikely to before the end of the decade. One of the big players in the battery recycling space, Redwood Materials, even started a separate division to reuse old batteries rather than recycle them after its teams discovered the cells had far more life left in them.

For now, O’Connor is confident that there’s enough raw materials available in the U.S. and Europe to supply the two new facilities that it is building. The facilities in South Carolina and the Netherlands can process a combined 18,000 metric tons of scrap. As the material composition changes, Nth Cycle says it can adjust its process accordingly.

Other approaches, O’Connor said, rely to heavily on economies of scale to compete with Asian processors, which leaves them vulnerable until waste volumes increase. She said Nth Cycle can add modules as battery waste grows.

“That’s how you change and really get refining capacity here [in the U.S.] — you match the volumes,” she said.