EV battery recycler Aqua Metals has entered right into a strategic partnership with South Korean battery supplies firm Yulho.

Yulho will make a strategic fairness funding of $5 million in Aqua Metals, and Aqua will grant Yulho a license to deploy its patented AquaRefining know-how in South Korea.

Yulho has been round for 25 years, and has established relationships with the nation’s largest battery and EV companies. By its subsidiary, Yulho Supplies, the corporate collects and processes battery manufacturing scrap and spent lithium-ion batteries into black mass—the combination of lithium, nickel, cobalt and different useful battery supplies that Aqua Metals’ course of is designed to recuperate.

Yulho Supplies beforehand accomplished a pilot demonstration of its personal proprietary black mass course of, and has offered distinctive high quality materials samples to Aqua Metals. Yulho is presently constructing a black mass facility with an annual capability of 8,000 metric tons, the place it expects to begin manufacturing later this yr, and plans to increase to 24,000 tons of capability sooner or later.

Aqua Metals presently operates a battery recycling facility within the US, the place it makes use of its AquaRefining know-how to recuperate the metals and minerals contained in black mass with out the usage of polluting furnaces or intensive chemical processes that produce extreme carbon emissions and chemical waste.

“Given that every firm excels in pre-processing and post-processing fields, we anticipate important synergy ensuing from this partnership,” mentioned Yulho CEO Lee Jeong-nam. “We intention to increase our enterprise mannequin past a easy know-how swap and three way partnership institution. Collectively, each firms will pursue collaborative ventures, elevating our enterprise mannequin.”

Aqua Metals not too long ago introduced an providing of greater than 15 million shares of frequent inventory at $1.10 per share, bringing the whole proceeds of the corporate’s two current choices to $22 million.

“We consider our not too long ago introduced public fairness elevate, alongside our strategic financing and proposed partnership with Yulho, signifies a transformative second for Aqua Metals,” mentioned Aqua Metals CEO Steve Cotton. “We anticipate this to be a pivotal step in our long-term imaginative and prescient for world development, accelerating our business operations right here in america, and bringing our AquaRefining know-how to South Korea.”

Supply: Aqua Metals