The industrial recovery of lithium, cobalt, and nickel from spent EV batteries, now structurally mandated by EU law and the central supply-chain bet against dependence on new primary mining.
China's most vertically integrated cobalt-to-cathode company, spanning Democratic Republic of Congo mining and Indonesian nickel HPAL to battery materials for global EV makers.
full dossier ›Producers and processors: the fifteen miners and refiners who set the critical minerals supply floor
From Chilean brine fields to Congolese copper pits, fifteen companies mine and refine the lithium, copper and cobalt the energy transition depends on.
The only commercial route from low-grade Indonesian laterite ore to battery-grade nickel, now structurally exposed by sulphuric acid import dependency and Jakarta's supply controls.
Zimbabwe holds some of the world's largest hard-rock lithium reserves and is Africa's first exporter of domestically refined lithium sulphate, driven by Chinese capital and a mandatory processing policy.
China's largest cobalt-battery materials company expanded simultaneously into Korean EV supply, Indonesian cell manufacturing, and European recycling in 2026, building a vertically integrated position from DRC mining to end-of-life battery recovery