Li-Cycle and Glencore announce strategic partnership

Li-Cycle employees at a facility in Kingston, ON.

TORONTO — Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., a company involved in lithium-ion battery resource recovery and a lithium-ion battery recycler in North America, announced a strategic partnership with Glencore plc, a provider of primary metals for the production of EV batteries. The strategic partnership hopes to better serve the EV battery supply chain by providing customers with an integrated approach for their primary and recycled metal needs.

Li-Cycle and Glencore have executed a global feedstock supply agreement under which Glencore will supply all types of manufacturing scrap and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries to Li-Cycle. Li-Cycle and Glencore have also entered into a non-binding Term Sheet for global, long-term strategic contracts, which would complement Li-Cycle’s existing off-take and marketing agreements, including:

• Supply of black mass to Li-Cycle’s Hubs
• Off-take of black mass from Li-Cycle’s Spokes
• Off-take of battery-grade end products produced by Li-Cycle’s Hubs
• Off-take of by-products from Li-Cycle’s Spokes and Hubs, and
• Supply of sulfuric acid, one of the key input reagents for Li-Cycle’s Hubs

Upon execution of the commercial agreements, Glencore will make a $200 million investment in Li-Cycle and Glencore will have the right to nominate one board member to the Li-Cycle board. Li-Cycle has agreed to nominate Kunal Sinha, Glencore’s Head of Recycling, to the Li-Cycle Board of Directors.

“We are thrilled to have Glencore as a long-term strategic investor and global commercial partner. Bringing our complementary capabilities together will accelerate the path to a circular economy for critical materials in the lithium-ion battery supply chain,” said Ajay Kochhar, Li-Cycle Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “These agreements further secure and diversify our lithium-ion battery supply and feedstock sources, competitively positioning our network expansion in North America and Europe.”

Debbie Simpson, Li-Cycle Chief Financial Officer, added: “The $200 million investment by Glencore will enhance Li-Cycle’s already strong balance sheet and will provide us with total cash greater than our anticipated capital needs for the completion of the Rochester Hub and the five Spokes currently in development and our operating needs for the next two years. Once completed, the Glencore investment, together with the previously announced investments by LG Chem, Ltd. and LG Energy Solution, Ltd. and the investment made by an affiliate of Koch Strategic Platforms, will bring the total new capital we have raised since our August 2021 NYSE listing from key strategic global players in the battery material industry to $350 million.”