Status
Cancelled: CAM portion cancelled and DOE grant returned in 2025
Process: hydrometallurgy. Capacity: 30,000 t/yr (Legacy figure; not re-verified).
Ascend full-scale CAM production from recycled inputs; Hopkinsville KY adjacent to BlueOval SK; largest US recycled CAM plant; DOE $480M loan; IRA critical mineral compliance.
Customers and offtakers: SK On / LGES / Samsung SDI.
Plant record
Plant record
| Company | Ascend Elements |
| Plant | Hopkinsville Kentucky Apex 1 |
| City | Hopkinsville |
| State or province | Kentucky |
| Country | USA |
| Type | Recycler |
| Process | hydrometallurgy |
| Output stage | battery-grade salts |
| Input chemistries | NMC, NCA, LFP |
| Output products | pCAM; CAM (full refining) |
| Capacity (t/yr input) | 30000 |
| Capacity basis | Legacy figure; not re-verified |
| Status | cancelled |
| Status note | CAM portion cancelled and DOE grant returned in 2025; construction paused; project company filed Chapter 11 in April 2026 and the site sold to the Turner-Kokosing JV for $31.7M in June 2026 |
| Scale | commercial |
| Start year | 2025 |
| Investment (US$ billion) | 1.0 |
| Customers and offtakers | SK On / LGES / Samsung SDI |
| OEM partnerships | SK On; LGES; Samsung SDI US JVs |
| Under EU Battery Regulation | No |
| Geopolitical exposure | LOW |
| Record updated | 2026-10 |
Official site: ascendelements.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 |
|---|---|---|
| Covington Georgia Spoke (Ascend Elements) | USA | operational |
| Fernley Nevada Plant (ABTC) | 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 |
| South Carolina Campus (Redwood Materials) | USA | operational |
| OKC Refurbishment Campus (Spiers New Technologies) | USA | operational |
Sources
Sources and scope
- Scope
- Hopkinsville Kentucky Apex 1 (Ascend Elements)
- Sources
- ElectronsX recycling dataset; company disclosures
- Updated
- 2026-10