November 27, 2024

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GS Energy CEO Huh Yong-soo (fourth from left), Huayou Cobalt Co. Chairman Chen Xuehua (fifth from left), Posco Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo (sixth from left) and South Jeolla Province Gov. Kim Yung-rok (seventh from left) pose for a photo to celebrate the construction of a new battery recycling plant at the Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province, Friday. (Posco Holdings)

Posco Holdings said Sunday it has completed the construction of a new secondary battery recycling plant at the Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province.

The new plant is operated by Posco HY Clean Metal, a joint venture set up between Posco Holdings, Huayou Cobalt and GS Energy. The facility is capable of processing 12,000 metric tons of black mass and collects 2,500 tons of nickel, 800 tons of cobalt and 2,500 tons of lithium carbonate from it. Black mass -- a powdery faction that contains nickel, lithium, cobalt and manganese -- is currently produced at the Poland Legnica Sourcing Center, another battery recycling center that Posco Holdings built in August last year in Brzeg Dolny, Poland.

The company held a ceremony to celebrate the plant’s construction on Friday with top executives including Posco Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, South Jeolla Province Gov. Kim Yung-rok, Huayou Cobalt Chairman Chen Xuehua and GS Energy CEO Huh Yong-soo in attendance.

“We will continue to invest in cathode materials, precursors, lithium and their recycling to grow Posco Group into a global leader in secondary battery materials,” Choi said during Friday’s ceremony. Gov. Kim Yung-rok of South Jeolla Province also declared that South Jeolla will become "the mecca of secondary battery materials."

Posco Holdings plans to get a supply of black mass from PLSC to Posco HY Clean Metal, which will extract raw materials from secondary batteries. The recycling plant can also produce byproducts such as copper and sodium sulfate generated from battery recycling to minimize waste generation.

Through the construction of the secondary battery recycling plant, Posco Holdings aims to establish a closed-loop recycling system that sustainably develops secondary batteries by recovering raw metals from processing scraps and battery wastes.

By Lee Jung-joo (lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com)