The value for black mass is often quoted as a % of payables, that is once purified, how much are the metals worth. The issue is that although this works well enough for NMC and NCA, a relative price like this doesn’t work well for chemistries with a lower value due to fixed operating costs. Furthermore, many metals are currently assumed to be worth much less and are accounted for by simply using a percentage of payable of the more valuable metals, but as we have seen over the past years, fluctuations can be extreme. This is why we are creating an index for black mass value based on the spot price of nine commodities, and detailed knowledge of the composition of 13 different lithium-ion battery chemistries. Any analyst with a solid understanding of its company’s black mass processing costs should then be able to use these figures to get a good idea of available margins. At the same time, sorters and shredders with a realistic understanding of the costs involved in processing black mass and a firm grasp on their own operating costs should be able to clearly know how much a given chemistry should be worth at their stage in the process.

These 9 commodities are nickel, cobalt, aluminum, copper, lithium, manganese, iron, phosphorus, and titanium. In the majority of chemistries, this makes up most of the content that is not the casing, graphite, sleeve, or the PID. The value published is therefore a maximum worth of the metals contained in one metric ton of black mass coming from a given chemistry. It is important to understand that this final value must support the entire value chain, including collection, sorting, shredding, shipping, separating the metals, purifying the metals, and then proceeding to selling those metals. Furthermore, no losses are accounted for in this calculation either, as we will leave it to each respective reader to know the efficiencies of their value chain and to prorate accordingly.

The 13 chemistries we will be publishing for are LCO, LMO, NMC 111, NMC 622 NMC 532, NMC 712, NMC 955, NMC9525, NCA, LFP, LMFP, and LTO.

Limitations 

Chemistries do get adjusted over time, and composition varies from model to model depending on the desired characteristics. Averages are used within our selected chemistries in order to get an educated understanding of the value of each type of black mass.

Another caveat is that lithium carbonate can be particularly difficult to recycle. The reprocessing of the lithium gathered from black mass is likely going to be more expensive to bring back to a usable state compared to other metals. This means that black mass that relies heavily on the lithium payables will have smaller margins. 

Although rare, some processes do allow the potential to reuse the electrolyte, this is not at all reflected in the value of black mass these days, partially because shipping dry black mass means the electrolyte has already been removed. Recovering the electrolyte is also impractical if not impossible with pyrometallurgy. 

In future articles, we will look at how this payable value relates to the market price of black mass, especially when we look at the overheads of different processes. We will also explore how the waste collection industry, which relies heavily on fixed labor costs, is impacted by the variable value of black mass.