KEY POINTS
- The US Department of Energy is considering up to $100 million in funding for Nth Cycle’s Project Shield black mass refinery.
- The facility is designed to process up to 24,000 tonnes of black mass annually into nickel MHP and battery-grade lithium carbonate.
- Project Shield is expected to begin operations in 2029 and reduce US dependence on overseas critical-mineral processing.
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is considering awarding up to $100 million to Nth Cycle to develop and build a large-scale facility for processing black mass, a key material recovered from used lithium-ion batteries.
The proposed refinery, known as Project Shield, is expected to strengthen the United States’ domestic supply of critical battery minerals and reduce the country’s reliance on overseas processing, particularly in China.
Under the Project Shield initiative, Nth Cycle plans to process up to 24,000 tonnes of domestically produced black mass each year.
The facility will use Nth Cycle’s proprietary electroextraction technology and its OYSTER system to recover and refine critical minerals.
The process is expected to produce high-purity nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) and battery-grade lithium carbonate.
These products are important inputs for several strategic industries, including electric vehicles, energy-storage systems, power grids, artificial intelligence data centres and military applications.
The project is therefore expected to play a role beyond battery recycling, with the recovered minerals potentially supporting industries considered important to US economic and national security.
US Seeks to Reduce Dependence on China
The proposed investment comes as Washington intensifies efforts to build domestic capacity for processing critical minerals.
The US has historically faced a significant gap between the amount of critical mineral-bearing material available domestically and the refining capacity required to process it. China has consequently maintained a dominant position in the global processing of several battery materials.
The situation has become a strategic concern for the US government, particularly as demand for lithium, nickel and other critical minerals increases.
The US Department of Commerce has also recently imposed a one-year export ban on black mass, increasing the importance of establishing sufficient domestic processing capacity.
Project Shield is designed to help address that gap by keeping recoverable battery materials within the US supply chain and converting them into refined products that can be used by domestic manufacturers.
