Status
Paused: Hub construction halted November 2023
Process: hydrometallurgy. Capacity: 35,000 t/yr (Legacy figure; not re-verified).
Rochester Hub, New York; meant to refine black mass from Li-Cycle spokes into lithium carbonate and nickel and cobalt sulfates; the largest stalled US recycling project.
Customers and offtakers: Glencore (captive) / multiple cell makers.
Plant record
Plant record
| Company | Glencore (formerly Li-Cycle) |
| Plant | Rochester Hub |
| City | Rochester |
| State or province | New York |
| Country | USA |
| Type | Recycler |
| Process | hydrometallurgy |
| Output stage | battery-grade salts |
| Input chemistries | NMC, NCA, LFP |
| Output products | Li2CO3 / CoSO4 / NiSO4 / MnSO4 - battery-grade salts |
| Capacity (t/yr input) | 35000 |
| Capacity basis | Legacy figure; not re-verified |
| Status | paused |
| Status note | Hub construction halted November 2023; Li-Cycle filed for creditor protection in May 2025 and Glencore completed the purchase on August 8, 2025; no restart announced |
| Scale | commercial |
| Start year | 2025 |
| Investment (US$ billion) | 0.5 |
| Customers and offtakers | Glencore (captive) / multiple cell makers |
| OEM partnerships | Glencore majority ownership post-2024 |
| Under EU Battery Regulation | No |
| Geopolitical exposure | HIGH |
| Record updated | 2026-10 |
Official site: glencore.com
In context
Where it fits
Listed in EV Battery Recycling Facilities. Recyclers are compared on where they stop: shredding to black mass, smelting to alloy, or refining to battery-grade salts that go back into cathode plants; only refining keeps the metal in the region. See Battery Recycling for the process and the market.
| Plant | Country | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Kingston Spoke (Glencore (formerly Li-Cycle)) | Canada | operational |
| Magdeburg Spoke (Glencore (formerly Li-Cycle)) | Germany | operational |
| Fernley Nevada Plant (ABTC) | USA | operational |
| Covington Georgia Spoke (Ascend Elements) | USA | operational |
| Worcester Pilot (Ascend Elements (formerly Battery Resourcers)) | USA | operational |
| Lancaster California (B2U Storage Solutions) | USA | operational |
| Lancaster and US Plants (Cirba Solutions) | USA | operational |
| Bend Oregon Direct+Second Life (OnTo Technology) | USA | operational |
| NJ Direct Recycling Pilot (Princeton NuEnergy) | USA | operational |
| McCarran Nevada Campus (Redwood Materials) | USA | operational |
Sources
Sources and scope
- Scope
- Rochester Hub (Glencore (formerly Li-Cycle))
- Sources
- ElectronsX recycling dataset; company disclosures
- Updated
- 2026-10