Baar ZG/Toronto – Glencore is providing Canadian battery recycler Li-Cycle with additional liquidity of 75 million dollars. Li-Cycle, the preferred recycling partner of the Zug-based commodities trader and mining group, has already received 200 million dollars from Glencore for a convertible bond in 2022.
The Baar-based commodities trader and mining group Glencore is once again lending a helping hand to one of its preferred circular economy partners, Li-Cycle. The Swiss producer, recycler and marketer of nickel and cobalt for the production of lithium-ion batteries invested 200 million dollars in the Canadian company Li-Cycle in June 2022. According to a press release, Glencore has now also acquired a senior secured convertible bond with a total nominal value of USD 75 million.
Glencore is Li-Cycle’s partner for battery raw materials for Li-Cycle’s decentralized spoke facilities, as well as a future supplier of black mass and key reagents for the company’s future central hub facilities based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Glencore complements Li-Cycle’s existing partners by purchasing and marketing Li-Cycle’s end products and certain by-products to be produced at some of the company’s hub and spoke facilities. The terms hub and spoke are used to describe a logistics network.
Ajay Kochhar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle, which is currently undergoing a comprehensive financial and strategic review process, emphasizes that this additional investment of 75 million dollars by Glencore “improves our liquidity”. His company is “continuing to work closely with the US Department of Energy on a commitment for a conditional loan of up to 375 million dollars”.
Kunal Sinha, Global Head of Recycling at Glencore and Director of the Board of Directors of Li-Cycle, emphasizes his company’s commitment to “bringing a scalable and sustainable circular economy to the battery materials supply chain”. Both investments are part of this strategy “so that both Li-Cycle and Glencore can continue to build the battery cycle platform that our customers want”. ce/mm
