U.S. Battery Material Refineries

An up-to-date list of the major refineries for processing battery-grade lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite for making batteries for electric vehicles, storage, and solar. These minerals and metals are the most critical (active) materials in making EV batteries.

EV battery material processing in the U.S.

The reshoring and building of a domestic EV lithium battery supply chain is in full swing in the U.S., with a bevy of new lithium, nickel, and cobalt refineries and processing facilities coming online in the next few years. The output of these refineries is to produce high-purity (99.5+%) lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese (for cathode), and graphite (for anode) to produce what are known as battery active materials

The 3 most used battery chemistries are:

NCM/NMC – Lithium-Nickel-Cobalt Manganese Oxide (LiNiCoMnO₂)
NCA – Lithium Nickel-Cobalt Aluminium Oxide (LiNiCoAlO₂)
LFP – Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO₄)

with EVs using NCM, NCA, and LFP chemistries; storage applications using NCM (on-grid) and LFP (off-grid); and solar applications using LFP.

NMC batteries come in different ratios - NMC 622/811/955. NMC 811 for example means a ratio of N to M to C of 80% nickel, 10% manganese, and 10% cobalt. Overall, such a battery contains 11% lithium, with 89% consisting of the NMC materials in a specific ratio (such as 811).

Battery-grade (BG) active materials

The finished products are called battery-grade active materials or cathode active materials (CAM) and are:

Lithium hydroxide (LiOH)
Nickel sulfate (NiSO₄)
Cobalt sulfate (CoSO₄)
Manganese sulfate monohydrate (MnSO₄)
Purified spherical graphite (PSG)

Cathode active material (CAM) refineries

Anode material (graphite) refineries