Latest news with #WillBarker
NZ Herald
30-07-2025
- Automotive
- NZ Herald
Auckland's Mint Innovation secures $18m to recycle EV batteries for Jaguar Land Rover in the UK
The required scale to hit profit He tells the Herald a demo plant has already been created: 'It's dealing with 500kg batches of material, which is not commercial, but enables you to design the kind of massive energy balances, all of the protocols, for a full-scale that is profitable.' What sort of scale are we talking? 'About 20,000 tonnes of batteries. Car batteries are somewhere in the order of half a tonne, so that's about 40,000 cars.' In global industrial terms, that's modest scale. 'The intention is that we build these smaller-scale plants that are able to be deployed everywhere where these waste streams exist, and create a circularity solution for every country that's demanding these critical metals,' Barker says. Mint Innovation is secret squirrel about its extraction process, but Barker says it's brand-agnostic. Under the £8.1m pilot, it will be used to extract materials that can be remanufactured into battery cells that go into new Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. Mint Innovation founder and chief executive Will Barker. Photo / Supplied But Barkers adds, 'We can drop into anyone's supply chain. We're super-excited to be working with one of the best-known car manufacturers in the world – and a super-attractive brand that really enables us to supercharge this project. But in reality, to get impact, we've got to solve a global problem.' While a number of start-ups are vying for the nascent EV battery recycling market, Mint has already proved its chops in other areas. The EV battery project represents a branching-out for the Kiwi firm, which at first focused on extracting valuable materials such as gold and copper from e-waste such as old cellphones and laptops. Mint built its first e-waste plant in Sydney, where commercial operation began last year. The Australian plant is currently being retooled so tin and silver can also be extracted. A second plant is on the way in the US, at a site in Texas. The expansion into EV batteries had its genesis in the pandemic, Barker says. 'All of my scientists were locked out of the lab for an extended period. So to keep the creative juices flowing, I asked them to focus on alternative waste streams – and one of those was lithium-ion batteries. 'As soon as we were allowed back in the lab, we split off a small team to start working on it and they quickly gained a lot of traction. So it was a fortuitous outcome from a pretty challenging time.' E-offshore Why does Mint not have a plant in its own country, especially given it's had Government backing in the form of $5m from Callaghan Innovation? It was drawn across the Tasman by larger clean-energy grants, e-waste recycling mandates and the larger market. Mint Innovation's e-waste "biorefinery" in Sydney. Photo / Supplied In New Zealand there are plans to regulate e-waste but it has so far been five years in the making despite a spate of recent lithium-ion battery fires. Environment Minister Penny Simmonds recently said the plan to regulate e-waste (and the likes of farm plastics and agrichemicals) was not stalled, but neither were there set dates for its implementation. 'I intend to progress schemes in a measured way to ensure they are well-considered and cost-of-living impacts are limited," Simmonds said. READ MORE: Barker says his firm will likely process e-waste in New Zealand eventually, it just makes economic and practical sense to open its first plants overseas. Meanwhile, his firm's R&D operations remain in Auckland, where that Callaghan money has helped create 20 high-skill jobs and a business that's generating export receipts. The electric car battery recycling plants will only be built where there's manufacturing demand and where, such as in the UK and EU, there are mandates for new EV batteries to have minimum amounts of recycled materials. Source / McKinsey Mint, founded by LanzaTech alumnus Barker in 2016, raised $60m in a 2023 Series C venture capital round, which came on top of a $20m Series B in 2020 and an earlier $6m Series A. Local backers include Icehouse Ventures, Movac, the Crown (through NZ Growth Capital Partners' Inspire fund), WNT Ventures, the ubiquitous Sir Stephen Tindall and Ngāi Tahu Investments. Source / McKinsey Barker says there is likely to be a Series D raise next year, 'somewhere north of US$50m [$83m]'. He cites a 2023 McKinsey report that found lithium-ion battery demand is expected to grow by about 27% annually to reach around 4700 gigawatt hours by 2030, or the equivalent of around 117 million batteries from small to mid-sized electric cars. McKinsey predicted a US$40m EV battery recycling industry by 2040, with a US$6b profit pool. Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald's business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
UK's lithium-ion battery project gets government funding
A UK-based EV lithium-ion battery recycling project has secured £8.1m ($10.8m) funding to manufacture lithium-ion battery materials from recycled sources. The project is a collaboration between clean tech innovator Mint Innovation, Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Recyclus Group subsidiary LiBatt Recycling, and WMG at the University of Warwick. The UK Department for Business and Trade, via the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), has contributed £4.05m for the project. The battery recycling project is part of the larger DRIVE35 programme, which is investing £2.5bn to enhance the nation's automotive sector and create jobs. This collaboration will focus on expanding Mint Innovation's technology platform for recovering lithium, nickel, and cobalt from spent lithium-ion batteries, essential for electric vehicle (EV) battery production. Mint noted that the project's goal is to prove its low-carbon hydrometallurgical black mass refining technology at demonstration scale, which aids in securing its domestic supply chains and meets net-zero targets via clean solutions. Set to take place in the West Midlands, UK, the project will be delivered over the span of three years, concluding in 2028. APC UK has estimated that by 2040, the UK will generate nearly 235 kilotonnes of EV battery waste. Mint said, each partner is tasked with 'ensuring a sustainable lifecycle' for lithium-ion batteries. This includes managing end-of-life battery supply, processing, and integrating recycled materials into new batteries. Mint CEO Will Barker said: 'Our team is incredibly excited to partner with JLR, LiBatt Recycling, Recyclus Group, and WMG in this innovative consortium. 'Together, we're able to advance zero emission automative manufacturing at a faster pace, pioneering sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling solutions to secure onshore supply of green materials critical for the UK's rapidly growing EV industry.' "UK's lithium-ion battery project gets government funding" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
