New 154,000-square-foot US plant makes lithium carbonate from 100% recycled batteries

R3 Lithium has started producing lithium carbonate from recycled battery materials at its facility in Covington, Georgia. The 154,000-square-foot plant is designed to recover lithium at commercial scale. R3 also raised $15 million in Series A funding to upgrade the operation. The company expects the Georgia facility to produce more than half of US lithium carbonate output in 2027. Its existing production line can make 2,500 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually. Georgia plant targets scale The facility can shred as much as 30,000 metric tons of battery material each year. That feedstock includes manufacturing scrap and batteries reaching the end of their useful lives. Shredding produces black mass, which contains the valuable materials left inside lithium-ion batteries. R3 processes that material at the same site to recover lithium and produce lithium carbonate. The process combines calciner-based crystallization with water-based precipitation. Keeping those steps together eliminates the need to ship lithium-bearing material elsewhere for refining. The facility previously produced 99%-pure lithium carbonate using entirely recycled material. R3 acquired the site in July after its previous owner invested about $150 million into the operation. A second 2,500-metric-ton production line could eventually double the site’s lithium carbonate capacity. R3 has also secured roughly $1 billion in offtake agreements with customers. Trafigura is among the buyers supporting those agreements. Tim Wood-Dow, a battery metals trader at Trafigura, said domestic lithium supplies remain limited. Recycling cuts supply chain The approach could give US battery manufacturers another source of domestically processed lithium. Much of the world’s battery production and processing capacity remains overseas. Developing new lithium mines also takes considerable time. Projects can spend seven to 10 years navigating permitting before production begins. Recycling existing batteries offers a different route to supply. R3 can source lithium from material already circulating through the battery economy. Demand for lithium carbonate is also expanding as battery storage grows. Global battery storage installations surpassed 300 gigawatt-hours during 2025. Data center construction has added another source of demand for large energy storage systems. Each gigawatt-hour of grid-scale storage requires about 880 tons of lithium carbonate. R3 plans to build additional facilities across North America and Europe. Each site would use modular production units capable of processing 5,000 metric tons annually. The company plans to secure customer offtake agreements before deploying those units. That strategy would let R3 expand capacity in stages as demand develops. One site handles recovery The Covington facility also recovers materials beyond lithium. Its process produces concentrated metal oxide containing nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite. R3 can sell those materials separately after extracting the lithium. That creates additional value from the same recycled battery feedstock. Keeping the process on one site also reduces the number of locations involved in moving battery materials through the recycling chain. Scrap and spent batteries can enter the facility and emerge as refined lithium carbonate. R3 now wants to replicate that model across additional sites. If its expansion targets hold, recycled batteries could become a larger source of domestically produced lithium carbonate in the US.Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Aamir is a seasoned tech journalist with experience at Exhibit Magazine, Republic World, and PR Newswire. With a deep love for all things tech and science, he has spent years decoding the latest innovations and exploring how they shape industries, lifestyles, and the future of humanity.