Iondrive raises $6 million to progress DES battery recycling tech

Iondrive has announced a $6.1 million raise, before costs, which it says will be used for building and running a pilot plant using its novel battery recycling method, progressing industry collaborations in the key European Union and United States markets, and for general working capital.

In a statement to the ASX on Tuesday, Iondrive said it has received firm commitments through the share placement for up to a total of 435,714,286 fully paid ordinary shares at $0.014 each.

“We are thrilled to complete our capital raise, a key step in commercialising our battery recycling technology,” said CEO Dr Ebbe Dommisse. 

“Institutional and cornerstone investor participation highlights confidence in Iondrive.”

Iondrive added that there was some chance that the proceeds may be used to exercise its option to acquire the technology from the University of Adelaide for $1 million, rather than exclusively licence.

The deep eutectic solvents (DES) process is described as non-toxic and giving improved purity and recovery rates of metals such as nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium from black mass.

Black mass is a shiny, metallic mixture made up of shredded cathodes and anodes from batteries. The black colour is due to a high concentration of graphite, and the mixed material is typically exported to Asia for energy-intensive pyrometallurgical and acid-leaching hydrometallurgical processing methods to recover useful metals.

According to Iondrive, DES is “cleaner, greener, and more cost effective, with a significantly smaller environmental footprint, avoiding high temperatures and corrosive acids.”

Picture: A lithium ion laptop battery (credit Kristoferb, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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