Posco sets up new entity in Poland to recycle LG batteries

Steelmaker Posco has set up an entity in Poland and will launch another one in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province in South Korea to recycle LG Energy Solution’s electric vehicle batteries.

The entity in Poland will collect defective batteries from LG's 70-gigawatt-hour lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant nearby.

Posco will extract cathodes from the batteries and grind them up into fine powder before shipping them to the Gwangyang complex where key metals such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese would be extracted.

The powder is dipped into acid or it is melted in high heat to extract critical metals. Posco has yet to decide on which method to follow.

Cathodes are among the four key components of lithium-ion batteries. It accounts for about 25 percent of the lithium-ion batteries cost due to its expensive cobalt content. The recent boom of electric vehicles pushed cobalt prices from $29,500 on Apr. 29 last year to $47,140 per metric ton as of Thursday.