POSCO Holdings Completes Construction of Secondary Battery Recycling Plant

Annual Recovery of 2,500t Nickel and 800t Cobalt from Waste Batteries
Securing Raw Materials for Secondary Battery Materials Including 2,500t Lithium Carbonate

At the POSCO HY Clean Metal secondary battery recycling plant completion ceremony held seven days ago at the Yeulchon Industrial Complex in Jeollanam-do, attendees are participating in a switching ceremony. From the left, Kim Jun-hyung, CEO of POSCO Future M; Kim Ji-yong, Head of POSCO Holdings Future Technology Research Institute (Group CTO); Yoo Byung-ok, Vice President of POSCO Holdings Eco-friendly Future Materials; Heo Yong-soo, CEO of GS Energy; Chen Xuehua, Chairman of Huayou Cobalt; Choi Jeong-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group; Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do; Kim Hoe-jae, Member of the National Assembly; Jeong Gi-myeong, Mayor of Yeosu; and Jeong In-hwa, Mayor of Gwangyang, are taking a commemorative photo. Photo by POSCO Holdings

POSCO Holdings has completed the construction of POSCO HY Clean Metal's secondary battery recycling plant. POSCO HY Clean Metal is a secondary battery recycling specialist company jointly established by POSCO Holdings, China's Huayou Cobalt, and GS Energy.

At the completion ceremony of POSCO HY Clean Metal's secondary battery recycling plant held on the 7th at the Yulchon Industrial Complex in Jeollanam-do, attendees included Choi Jeong-woo, Chairman of POSCO Group; Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do; Kim Hoe-jae, Member of the National Assembly; Jeong Gi-myeong, Mayor of Yeosu; Jeong In-hwa, Mayor of Gwangyang; Chen Xuehua, Chairman of Huayou Cobalt; and Heo Yong-su, President of GS Energy.

On this day, Chairman Choi Jeong-woo stated, "Through continuous investment in cathode materials, precursors, lithium, and recycling, we will develop POSCO Group into a global leading company in secondary battery materials," and Governor Kim Young-rok said, "Jeollanam-do will become the mecca of secondary battery materials."

The newly completed secondary battery recycling plant can process 12,000 tons of black powder annually, recovering metal resources that serve as raw materials for secondary battery materials such as 2,500 tons of nickel, 800 tons of cobalt, and 2,500 tons of lithium carbonate. Black powder is a black powder selectively collected by crushing waste batteries and contains expensive metals that are raw materials for secondary battery materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese.

POSCO Holdings established the PLSC (Poland Legnica Sourcing Center) plant in Poland last August. Here, secondary battery scrap and waste batteries are crushed to produce black powder, which is then supplied to POSCO HY Clean Metal's recycling plant in the Yulchon Industrial Complex, Jeollanam-do, to extract raw metal materials for secondary battery materials.

POSCO HY Clean Metal possesses process technology that maximizes the recovery rate of raw metal materials for secondary battery materials, and byproduct materials such as copper and sodium sulfate generated during the process are also commercialized to minimize waste generation.

The products produced by POSCO HY Clean Metal are supplied to POSCO Future M's cathode material plant adjacent within the same Yulchon Industrial Complex, strengthening the raw material procurement competitiveness of POSCO Group's secondary battery materials business. POSCO Holdings has secured not only core raw materials for secondary battery materials such as lithium and nickel, cathode and anode materials, and next-generation secondary battery materials but also recycling business capabilities, thereby establishing a complete secondary battery materials value chain for POSCO Group and further enhancing competitiveness.

POSCO Holdings recovers raw metals from process scraps and waste batteries generated by battery manufacturers. By establishing an eco-friendly resource circulation system (Closed loop) that reutilizes these materials in secondary battery material production, it is expected to minimize carbon dioxide emissions generated during raw material production processes such as mining and reduce costs.

Meanwhile, POSCO Holdings is constructing a lithium production plant for POSCO Philbar Lithium Solution in the Yulchon Industrial Complex, Jeollanam-do, and is developing a secondary battery materials complex and production hub by including the already operational POSCO Future M's cathode material plant and the newly completed POSCO HY Clean Metal's secondary battery recycling plant.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.