Yet the ability for consumers to recycle the lithium batteries they've bought to help them through the rolling blackouts, once they reached their end of life, has been constrained by a lack of recycling facilities in South Africa.
Johannesburg-based Cwenga Lib is hoping to change that with a new processing facility in Germiston. The company declined to disclose how much it invested in the plant.
The journey of a lithium-ion battery at the facility begins with collection. Batteries are gathered through various means, including partnerships with informal collectors, helping address waste management issues across Gauteng.
Once collected, the batteries undergo shredding, which exposes the valuable metal-containing black mass at their core. From there, the black mass enters a proprietary hydrometallurgical process, where a blend of food-safe chemicals is used to leach out metals such as lithium, manganese, nickel and cobalt.
Cwenga Lib's focus is on cobalt-containing batteries, also known as NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt) batteries, but plans are under way to expand the process to handle all lithium-ion batteries, regardless of their chemical composition. This broader capability will be essential as the industry shifts towards new battery technologies with fewer cobalt components.
