ION signs binding commercialisation deal with a battery recycling company

Published 17-SEP-2025 12:19 P.M.

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Our recycling tech Investment IonDrive (ASX: ION) just signed a binding agreement with ASX listed Livium to commercialise its tech inside Australia.

Livium runs Envirostream, a leading Australian lithium-ion battery recycler.

Some of Livium's customers include Hyundai Glovis and LG Energy Solutions:

(Source)

Livium already has collection and recycling networks in place and has now started expanding into the solar panel recycling and e-waste processing space.

The deal with ION is to test ION’s Deep Eutectic Solvent recycling tech on Livium’s feedstock, things like:

Crushed photovoltaic solar panel cells
Lithium-ion battery black mass
Rare earth magnets and
Other samples to be agreed, which may include e-waste.

The results from the testing will then be used to see how ION’s tech could fit into Livium’s existing business process’.

We noticed in the announcement that ION said testing would “support the negotiation of commercial supply and co-location agreements”.

(Source)

The deal is very similar to the one ION signed in the US recently with Colt Recycling LLC.

We covered this here: ION: Signs binding agreement for rare earths recycling in the USA

Basically, ION is doing a binding deal to test its tech in real life recycling supply chains.

IF successful, it could mean ION’s tech gets rolled out to an already established network of recycling facilities…

We like today’s deal because:

It solves for the feedstock sourcing issue that ION could have in the future - ION can tap into existing networks set up by Livium to access commercial volumes of recyclable materials.
Allows for ION to test its tech in a real life environment
IF the testing is successful, the agreements put in place foundations for a quick rollout into existing recycling networks.

ION has FID’ed on an Aus based pilot plant - so the timing of this deal also makes sense.

We covered the FID news here: ION will have its battery recycling pilot plant ready by “early 2026”

Back in August ION received ~A$3.9M in non-dilutive grant funding from the Australian government to build a metals recycling pilot plant.

And on the same day ION’s board approved the construction of a Pilot Plant, with construction to start in December 2025 with completion expected soon after in early 2026.

This grant would fund 50% of the cost of ION’s pilot plant up to a maximum of A$3.9M. ION expects the plant to cost $4.38M, which means ION should comfortably have 50% of the plant’s costs funded with today’s grant, even if there are cost overruns.

The plant would be built in Australia but ION’s CEO did say in a recent interview that it will be a “mobile unit” that can be moved anywhere in the world if needed…

The pilot plant is the first time ION is proving up its technology at a scale larger than bench scale testing.

Deals like the one signed today and the one with Colt Recycling in the US - just as ION is building its pilot plant is good timing, because it can be a way for ION to also show potential partners it’s tech works at scale.

Terms of today’s deal

Livium will supply ION with solar panels, battery black mass and rare earth magnets at agreed volumes.

ION will use its DES processes to explore recovery pathways and assess commercial scalability.

ION will retain ownership of all DES intellectual property and results, while Livium keeps the IP for sample generation.

Both parties will use their best efforts to negotiate binding commercial agreements on supply and co-location within 21 months.

The agreement provides limited exclusivity in Australia during the evaluation period with either party able to terminate the agreement with 30 days’ notice, subject to standard conditions.

What’s next for ION?

Over the next 6-9 months, we think one (or multiple) of the below catalysts could trigger a sustained re-rate in ION’s market cap:

[New] US rare earths partnership - ION will now test its tech on e-waste feedstock to see if it can commercially recover rare earths. IF successful, ION’s tech could be rolled out across recycling facilities processing ~40M lbs of e-waste feedstocks annually.
Pilot plant build for battery recycling tech - as mentioned earlier, we think this will be a big inflection point for ION. ION expects to have the plant built and commercially producing by “early 2026”.
EU grant decision - ION has also applied for a €3.1M EU grant with a consortium that includes “carmakers, battery manufacturers, material processors, and recyclers”. We expect an update within the next 3 months.
ION’s mineral processing tech gets de-risked - ION is currently testing its technology on “US sourced feedstock”. Any big feedstock supply deal, partnership deal or any strong recovery results could be a big unexpected catalyst for ION.
Application into new markets - Here, ION is looking at recovering copper, gold, silver, osmium and rare earth elements from e-waste (Printed Circuit Boards). Results from these tests could come at arbitrary times. We could see the market re-rate ION if the results are positive.
Graphite upgrade results - updates on this front came from a recent ION’s announcement. If ION can produce anode-grade graphite from recycled black mass, it could add to the economics of its pilot plant and strengthen the commercial case for a bigger plant. See our Quick Take on that news here.