Morning Edition · Tuesday, July 14, 2026Published at 1:33 AM EDT · New York
Japan's JX Metals Reports 90% Lithium Recovery From Spent EV Batteries
A plant in Tsuruga nearly doubles the prior sub-50% industry rate by swapping recovered lithium hydroxide for sodium hydroxide, with mass production set for 2027.
JX Metals Circular Solutions, a subsidiary of JX Advanced Metals, said its plant in Tsuruga, in Japan's Fukui Prefecture, recovers up to 90% of the lithium from used batteries, against a previous industry standard below 50%. The core change…
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Part of a tracked trend
Critical-Minerals Recycling as Domestic Supply
Higher-yield recycling of lithium and other battery metals increasingly converts waste streams into domestic supply, loosening dependence on mining and imports for the minerals that feed electrification and compute-adjacent storage.
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