With the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable and less carbon-intensive energy solutions globally, as well as moves to expand electric and hybrid vehicle use, comes the issue of discarded batteries and electrical components in the future as electrical and battery systems reach the end of their useful lives and are either recycled or discarded.

This brings about discussions on what to do with battery materials and electrical components, with an emphasis on recycling parts to ensure they stay within the so-called circular economy.

Brazilian multinational miner Vale base metals executive VP Mark Travers last week said recycling had to be part of moves towards an electric future and its incorporation into the circular economy, as well as part of the response to the energy transition to electric vehicles (EVs).

He spoke during a Financial Times Mining Summit on October 8, stating that many European governments were talking about recycling because they did not want to talk about mining, or perhaps because it was “unpopular to talk about mining”.

However, he said that, although recycling was undertaken on a small-scale basis currently, it would, potentially in a decade’s time, represent a significant portion of the market and be part of the energy and vehicle value chain, as battery and electrical components would start coming through from spent EV batteries.

As such, recycling solutions and technologies would need to be developed and/or scaled up so that vehicle original-equipment manufacturers would be able to know they had means to recycle components in the future.

“We would propose to partner with others in trying to find a recycling solution in the time required.

“It is also in our interest to use [recycled battery] material in our flow sheets, as part of our nickel supply for example. That is something we are definitely interested in and we are currently studying the recycling of different materials in different parts of our flowsheet,” said Travers.

In terms of the profitability of recycling, he said that, generally, studies have pointed to returns in that part of a business being smaller than other parts of the supply chain. Nonetheless, Travers said recycling was a critical part of any miner’s environment, social and governance credentials.

“We think [recycling] can add a significant contribution to the overall flowsheet. We are talking about supply of minerals and the challenge of coming up with that supply in the coming years,” he said, adding that Indonesia would provide a big part of that supply.

“We need more and we think we can provide that through new mines in places like Canada and Australia; but also recycling [used] material is a critical part of that solution [the supply of materials in the future],” said Travers.