After two years of difficulty and uncertainty, Toronto-based battery recycling company Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. (LICY-N) is emerging from its struggles and has resumed feasibility studies for a planned facility in Portovesme, Italy.

Li-Cycle and its partner Glencore International AG, a subsidiary of the Swiss commodities and mining company, are assessing the technical and economic viability of a facility in southern Italy, where a shredded battery product called black mass would be processed into reusable battery materials.

The plan is to repurpose Glencore’s metallurgical complex on the island of Sardinia through a joint venture, to build a facility that could process 50,000 to 70,000 tonnes of black mass, and produce up to 16,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate in Phase 2 of the project.

Announced May 2023, Li-Cycle and Glencore intended to complete the Phase 2 feasibility study by mid-2024, and begin commissioning in late 2026 to early 2027. The local government rejected fast-track approval, Reuters reported, and Li-Cycle was then barraged by financial troubles that put the brakes on its strategy for a global network of recycling facilities.

With Li-Cycle recently closing a US$475-million loan facility from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), a critical piece to restarting construction on the cornerstone Rochester, N.Y. facility, the company has seen its fortune reversed.

“We are pleased to continue our assessment and study of the Portovesme Hub project with Glencore,” Ajay Kochhar, Li-Cycle’s president and CEO, said in a release. “We believe the project has significant potential and can address the lack of post-processing recycling capacity in Europe needed for a localized closed-loop battery supply chain and provide a sustainable secondary source of critical battery materials."

Li-Cycle’s global recycling plans

Li-Cycle invented a “Spoke & Hub” model for battery recycling, where its Spoke sites produce black mass that contains valuable metals such as lithium and nickel. The black mass is sent to Hubs where it is converted into battery-grade materials for reuse.

It has three Spokes in the U.S. and one in Germany, and plans for Hubs in Portovesme and Rochester. A financial crunch in 2023 and 2024 deeply impacted the company, most notably delaying construction on the Rochester Hub.

The blow spread to its Spoke & Hub chain, particularly Spokes. Operations at its New York facility were curtailed, plans for Spokes in France and Germany were paused, and its Spoke in Kingston, Ont. was closed in August, all to sustain the business.

Restarting the feasibility study for the Portovesme Hub is a more positive sign for Li-Cycle’s global ambitions.

Li-Cycle’s announcement does not mention when it expects the study will be completed, or a schedule for when operations are anticipated to start.

“Separately, we remain focused on securing a full funding package needed to restart construction at our flagship Rochester Hub project and enable the first advance under the finalized DoE loan facility,” Kochhar said.