Atlas, 6K partner to boost green EV battery supply chain
The partnership will see Atlas Materials and 6K Energy working together to explore the development of a fully integrated mid-stream hydrometallurgical processing refinery in North America.
Nickel extraction technology company Atlas Materials has signed an MOU with Li-ion battery materials producer 6K Energy to jointly explore opportunities associated with the processing and refining of battery materials in support of a fully integrated, sustainable North American EV battery supply chain.
The Atlas Process creates clean, battery grade nickel with a significantly lower environmental footprint than other processes, and produces no waste or other emissions while increasing the amount of ore available for batteries by 50%, the company said.
Until now, saprolite ores, which account for approximately one third of the world’s nickel resources, could not be processed into battery grade applications economically, which is what the Atlas Process is targeting, it said.
6K’s UniMelt® production system continues to deliver multiple IRA compliant Li-ion materials, including nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) battery cathode active materials (CAM), with strong specification performance meeting or exceeding industry requirements, the media release said.
6K delivers both NMC and LFP at a significantly lower cost than Chinese suppliers – backed by lower energy consumption and as much as 65% lower carbon footprint, according to the media release.
The partnership will see Atlas and 6K working together to explore the development of a fully integrated mid-stream hydrometallurgical processing refinery in North America.
“Following the successful completion of our pilot plant earlier this year, which produced high quality nickel MHP, we look forward to building a strong partnership with 6K to further our goal of providing a sustainable supply of low carbon MHP for the North American EV battery market,” Atlas CEO David Dreisinger said.
“We continue to focus our efforts on delivering multiple IRA-compliant chemistries including NMC and LFP from our PlusCAM factory,” Sam Trinch, Group President, 6K Energy, said. “Having partners like Atlas working through a collaborative framework for the sustainable production of domestic CAM helps us drive substantial economic and technical advantages over competitors.”
