Primobius joint venture receives purchase order from Mercedes

Primobius GmbH, a joint venture between Neometals (ASX:NMT) and SMS Group GmbH, has received a purchase order for supply of a 10tpd Spoke with Mercedes.

The purchase order was awarded as part of a cooperation arrangement with Mercedes, with Primobius responsible for the engineering, equipment supply and installation for a fully integrated, closed loop Mercedes lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling plant.

The Mercedes LIB recycling plant marks the automotive giants’ entry into the field of LIB recycling and it ‘aims to cut resource consumption and establish closed-loop recycling of battery raw materials as (Mercedes) moves towards going electric only’. 

This plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 2500t, recovering materials which will be fed back into production of a targeted 50,000 battery modules for installation into new Mercedes vehicles.

Primobius is finalising the front-end-engineering activities for the recycling plant and expects a separate hub purchase order in the September quarter.

Spoke installation is planned to begin in Q4 2023 with commissioning expected to commence in Q1 2024.

Neometals managing director and chief executive Chris Reed said the company is honoured to support Mercedes.

“We are honoured to supply and support Mercedes in its journey to lead the closed-loop recycling of lithium batteries by automakers,” he said.

“Our long-term collaboration will ensure our process remains at the leading edge, able to process the latest innovations in cell chemistry, format and function.

“The Spoke is ready to be offered to our business development pipeline and the hub will soon be product ready.”