Zarko Meseldzija will step down from his roles as CEO and member of the board of directors of Canadian battery materials recycling company RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. as of Feb. 29, according to a release from the company.

The reason for his departure was not given.

Meseldzija served as CEO from September 2022, and held positions at RecycLiCo as a consultant, chief technical officer and director since November 2017.

Surrey, B.C.-based RecycLiCo (AMY-X) is behind a process that can extract up to 99 per cent of the lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese from lithium-ion battery waste.

“Zarko has been an integral part of RecycLiCo's journey. We are grateful for his service and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Paul Hildebrand, the chairman of the board, said in the release.

Meseldzija’s background

Meseldzija’s educational background consists of a bachelor’s in mining engineering from the University of Alberta and an MBA from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University.

His LinkedIn page lists his professional experience prior to his roles in RecycLiCo as:

• an operations engineer and mine performance analyst in Fort McMurray, Alta. with KMC Mining from October 2014 to February 2016
• an engineer for Suncor Energy from February 2016 to November 2016 in Fort Hills, Alta.
• an engineer for Sepro Mineral Systems Corp. from November 2016 to November 2017 in Vancouver; and
• The owner of Teslin Consulting in Vancouver from November 2017 to the present

RecycLiCo’s website says he has experience in project management, process development projects and circular economy strategies.

RecycLiCo update

Since last speaking to Sustainable Biz Canada, RecycLiCo has continued developing its battery materials recycling process.

In January 2024, the company’s recycled lithium carbonate from lithium-ion battery waste passed a series of tests by a battery materials company in Asia. 

In December 2023, the European Patent Office granted RecycLiCo the first of two patent applications for its lithium-ion battery recycling process. The same month it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program to join award negotiations with Wakefield, Mass.-based Nanoramic Laboratories.

In its interim financial report ending Oct. 31, 2023, RecycLiCo reported a deficit of $75.4 million and almost $20 million in working capital.