Company:Electra Battery Materials
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| NASDAQ: ELBM Template:TSX-V | |
| Industry | Metals and mining |
| Founded | March 2017, as First Cobalt Corp. |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Area served | North America |
Key people | Trent Mell, CEO |
| Website | https://electrabmc.com |
Electra Battery Materials Corporation (EBMC, formerly First Cobalt Corp.) is a Canadian multinational corporation engaged in mining and refining raw materials for electric batteries. Electra owns and operates the first fully permitted metallurgical refinery in North America for producing battery-grade cobalt and nickel sulfate.[1] The company also owns the Iron Creek cobalt-copper deposit in Lemhi County, Idaho, US.[2]
History
Cobalt has historically been obtained as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining.[3] The electric vehicle boom in the 2010s created an increased demand for cobalt as a component of electric batteries. In response to that, Electra (First Cobalt Corporation at the time) emerged as a pure-play cobalt exploration and mining company in 2017.[4] The company completed a three way merger with CobalTech Mining Inc. and Cobalt One Ltd to consolidate its ownership of cobalt assets in the Ontario cobalt camp.[5][6]
First Cobalt acquired junior explorer US Cobalt in 2018 and took ownership of its Iron Creek cobalt-copper project.[7] The Iron Creek deposit is located in the Idaho Cobalt Belt, which is the second largest known source of cobalt in the United States. In a 2019 estimate, First Cobalt defined an indicated resource of 6000 tons of cobalt and 13,000 tons of copper contained in this deposit.[8][9] By 2021, the company doubled its land position surrounding the Iron Creek project.[10]
In late 2021, the company announced the creation of Electra Battery Materials Park at its Ontario refinery site, with the addition of a recycling plant for expired Lithium-ion batteries.[11] Soon after, the company changed its name to Electra Battery Materials to reflect the strategic shift from being a pure-play cobalt miner toward refining and recycling a wider variety of battery materials.[12] In June 2022, Electra started preliminary discussions with the Quebec government to build a second cobalt refinery in the Bécancour Industrial Park.[13]
In December 2022, Electra launched a black mass (shredded remains of Li-ion batteries) recycling trial and demonstrated capability to extract lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, and graphite at scale.[14][15]
See also
- Battery recycling
- Redwood Materials inc.
References
- ↑ Jarratt, Emma (2021-07-20). "Canadian refinery aims high with goal to build "battery park" in Ontario" (in en-CA). https://electricautonomy.ca/2021/07/20/first-cobalt-ontario-battery-park/.
- ↑ Holtz, Michael (2022-01-24). "Idaho Is Sitting on One of the Most Important Elements on Earth" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/01/cobalt-clean-energy-climate-change-idaho/621321/.
- ↑ Gordon, Katie (2022-02-14). "The Assay's Breakdown of the Cobalt Market" (in en). https://www.theassay.com/articles/the-assay-insights/understanding-the-cobalt-market/.
- ↑ "The precious metal sparking a new gold rush" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2018-07-25. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44732847.
- ↑ "First Cobalt Reveals Plans to Consolidate Ontario's Historic Cobalt Mining Camp" (in en-gb). 2017-06-22. https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/first-cobalt/33672-first-cobalt-reveals-plans-to-consolidate-ontario-s-historic-cobalt-mining-camp.html.
- ↑ "The Canadian Ghost Town That Tesla Is Bringing Back to Life" (in en). Bloomberg.com. 2017-10-31. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-31/the-canadian-ghost-town-that-tesla-is-bringing-back-to-life.
- ↑ "First Cobalt seeks N.A. pure play status by acquiring US Cobalt – Resource World Magazine" (in en-US). https://resourceworld.com/first-cobalt-seeks-n-a-pure-play-status-by-acquiring-us-cobalt/.
- ↑ Holley, E.A.; Zaronikola, N.; Trouba, J.; Pfaff, K.; Thompson, J.; Spiller, E.; Anderson, C.; Eggert, R. (2023). "Cobalt mineralogy at the Iron Creek deposit, Idaho cobalt belt, USA: Implications for domestic critical mineral production". Geology 51 (8): 773–778. doi:10.1130/G51160.1. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G51160.1/623902/Cobalt-mineralogy-at-the-Iron-Creek-deposit-Idaho. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ↑ Fattaruso, Laura; America, Geological Society of. "How much cobalt can be mined in the US? Study examines domestic mining site in Idaho" (in en). https://phys.org/news/2023-06-cobalt-domestic-site-idaho.html.
- ↑ "First Cobalt doubles land position at Idaho project". 2021-05-11. https://www.mining.com/first-cobalt-doubles-land-position-in-idaho/.
- ↑ Yakub, Mehanaz (2021-11-12). "First Cobalt rebrands to Electra, clarifies battery industrial park plan" (in en-CA). https://electricautonomy.ca/2021/11/12/first-cobalt-electra-battery/.
- ↑ "After failing to find the motherlode, First Cobalt reinvents itself as a battery metal middle man". 2021-11-17. https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/electric-vehicles/first-cobalt-reinvents-itself-as-battery-metal-middle-man.
- ↑ "Electra studies new cobalt refinery in Quebec". 2022-06-23. https://www.miningweekly.com/article/electra-studies-new-cobalt-refinery-in-quebec-2022-06-23.
- ↑ "Electra produces lithium from battery recycling trial". 2023-03-13. https://www.mining.com/electra-produces-lithium-from-battery-recycling-trial/.
- ↑ Randall, Chris. "Electra Battery Materials successfully completes battery recycling trial" (in en-US). https://www.electrive.com/2023/03/14/electra-battery-materials-successfully-completes-battery-recycling-trial/.
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