The growth of electric batteries raises a new mining question: what happens to materials when equipment reaches the end of its life? Recycling is often presented as an answer to dependence on mines and concentrated supply chains. It can indeed return lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and graphite to circulation. However, this secondary resource does not emerge automatically or at the same pace as rising electric vehicle sales.
The issue is particularly relevant to Africa. The continent has significant resources of minerals used in batteries, but still needs to develop processing industries that create more value locally. Recycling could complement primary extraction and offer a new industrial market, provided collection, safety and processing infrastructure are built first.
An industrial chain, from collection to reusable materials
Recycling a lithium-ion battery does not simply mean shredding it to recover metals directly. The first stage is collection and identification, using handling procedures suited to fire and short-circuit risks. Batteries are then assessed: some packs can be repaired or reused for stationary storage, while excessively degraded components are sent for recycling.
Pretreatment dismantles and separates components. Mechanical shredding notably produces “black mass,” a concentrated mixture of electrode materials. Hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processes then extract and purify certain metals. The aim is to produce compounds of sufficient quality to return to an industrial chain, potentially including the manufacture of new battery components.
Each stage determines recoverable value. Poorly organized collection increases losses and risks; batteries designed without regard to dismantling increase costs; a factory without a market for intermediate products cannot ensure the whole chain’s profitability alone. Activity therefore depends on coordination between manufacturers, importers, transport operators, repair centers, recyclers and material buyers.
Real potential, but still constrained by timing
The International Energy Agency estimates that the value of recycled metals from batteries increased nearly elevenfold between 2015 and 2023. Volumes nevertheless depend on available waste and facilities’ ability to process it. In 2023, recovered volumes already represented more than 40% of theoretically available waste for nickel and cobalt, and around 20% for lithium, according to the agency’s indicator.
In the short term, factories can draw on cell manufacturing scrap and batteries from electronic devices. End-of-life electric vehicle battery volumes will increase later, as recently purchased vehicles are still operating. In its projections, the IEA estimates that manufacturing scrap will remain a major recycler feedstock through 2030, before end-of-life vehicle and storage batteries become more prominent from 2035.
This timing gap presents an economic risk: processing capacity installed too quickly may lack feedstock or operate below potential. Conversely, waiting without organizing collection could leave countries without solutions when volumes become larger. Planning must therefore track imported batteries’ age and number, vehicle fleets, electronic waste flows and industrial capacity actually available.
Asia still dominates processing
Recycling also concerns industrial location. The IEA notes that China accounts for more than three-quarters of global battery pretreatment capacity and around 90% of material recovery capacity. This concentration means that having minerals does not itself give a country a place in the battery chain: command of processes, standards, markets and supply contracts matters as much as deposits.
For African producers of lithium, cobalt, manganese, graphite or copper, recycling is therefore both a diversification opportunity and potential new competition. As recycled materials return to factories, they may reduce some demand for virgin raw materials. The IEA nevertheless emphasizes that effects will be gradual and depend on collection, refining capacity and demand for recycled materials.
An African industrial strategy could link existing mining activities with repair, refurbishment and material recovery. Industrial partnerships can bring technology, standards and markets, provided waste ownership, take-back, skills transfer and value sharing are clarified.
Conditions for establishing a local industry
The first challenge is organizing collection. Electric vehicle batteries, stationary solar batteries and portable device batteries follow different channels. Producer responsibility systems, drop-off points and traceability help direct these products to authorized operators rather than leaving them in informal channels or unsuitable storage sites.
The second challenge concerns safety and the environment. Storing, transporting and treating damaged batteries require suitable facilities and trained staff. Authorities must be able to control flows, impose safety requirements and track chemical residues. Without these safeguards, a recycling policy risks moving pollution rather than reducing its impact.
Finally, profitability depends on metal prices, energy costs, battery composition and operational scale. Chemistries are changing: some batteries contain less cobalt or nickel, metals that previously contributed to recovered materials’ value.
A complement to mining, rather than an immediate substitute
Recycling will not remove the need for extraction: demand continues to grow and materials remain tied up for several years in operating batteries. It can nevertheless improve supply security, reduce losses and strengthen the circular economy as end-of-life volumes rise.
For Africa, the strategic decision is to prepare the industry before waste becomes abundant. Priorities are measuring import flows, organizing take-back, strengthening skills and negotiating partnerships that retain more value on the continent. The real advantage will come from the ability to turn this secondary material into reliable industrial feedstock, rather than waste volume alone.