Powering up: Recycling critical metals from lithium batteries

As electric vehicle technologies advance and the energy transition continues, the demand for critical metals keeps rising. However, the primary resources for battery metals are not able to meet the growing demands for them. 

“The supply and demand for major metals, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper, shows that demand will outpace supply in the next few years,” says Dr. Jack Zhang (pictured), Associate Vice-President of Strategic Technologies in Saskatchewan Research Council's (SRC) Mining and Minerals Division. “We may be facing a shortage of critical metals for batteries.”