U.S. Metal, Battery Recycling Construction Means Big Spending

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Written by Eric Funderburk for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

While metals-recycling construction has been a consistent part of Metals & Minerals project activity for years, battery-recycling projects are rapidly gaining ground.

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A Circular Existence

Metals and minerals products, from steel to aluminum to glass, have always been subject to a circular existence, possessing the ability to be recycled multiple times with little or no quality loss. In addition to recycling facilities for both ferrous and nonferrous metals, battery recycling centers are gaining ground in the U.S. in an effort to reuse the valuable metals and minerals, many of which are on the U.S. critical minerals list.

Metals Recycling

Multiple construction projects to recycle metals of all sorts are presently under construction in the U.S., with many more lined up for the future. One of the largest recycling projects underway is an aluminum-recycling facility that, with an accompanying rolling plant, carries a hefty price tag in the billions of dollars. Engineering, procurement and construction contractor Fluor Incorporated broke ground on Novelis' plant in Bay Minette, Alabama, nearly four years ago, and construction is expected to carry on through the early part of next year. The project is geared toward the automotive sector, where aluminum's light weight is seen as a plus. The plant is expected to boost Novelis' global recycling capacity from around 74 billion beverage cans per year to 90 billion. Readers can access details of the project, including construction timelines, key contact details, and equipment and service needs, by clicking here.

Copper is a metal essential to modern life and has been part of the U.S. Critical Minerals List since last year. Having completed a grassroot copper scrap recycling and secondary smelting facility in Augusta, Georgia, only last year, Aurubis already is expanding that plant, which will double its processing capacity and boost the plant's output to 70,000 tons per year of blister copper, which is generally refined into a higher-grade product.

Multiple metals are on the books for other recycling facilities, including a grassroot scrap recycling plant approaching completion in Dayton, Texas, and the expansion of another plant in Sparta, Tennessee. Both facilities are targeting ferrous and nonferrous metals.

Industrial Info Resources data indicate dozens more U.S. metals-recycling projects on the books for next year, including Steel Dynamics' aluminum-recycling plant in Columbus, Mississippi, that will provide feedstock for the adjacent $1.9 billion flat-rolled aluminum mill completed last year.

Battery Recycling

Battery recycling is hitting the Metals & Minerals sector in big way, accounting for billions of dollars' worth of spending on the books in an effort to reuse the critical metals and minerals that are so vital to modern technologies. The biggest project underway in this area is a multibillion-dollar expansion project for Redwood Materials' facility in McCarran, Nevada, which recycles lithium-ion batteries and consumer electronics. The expansion, which is expected to be completed in 2028, will boost copper foil production to 35,000 metric tons per year and capture around 100,000 metric tons of cathode-active materials annually. Redwood was on the receiving end of around $2 billion in financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy for the plant's construction; however, the company ultimately didn't take the funds as it had raised enough private equity for the plant.

Cirba Solutions is wrapping up construction on battery-recycling plants in South Carolina and Ohio that will capture enough material, including nickel, cobalt and lithium as well as metal sulfides used in cathodes, for hundred of thousands of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Billions of dollars' worth of lithium-ion battery recycling construction is on the books in the U.S. for the future, although not all of these will move forward as planned. While multiple battery-recycling projects are planned, the original scope for some of these projects may have anticipated a larger saturation of EVs into the market. The U.S. electric vehicle industry has seen a sea change in government support between the Biden and second Trump presidencies, and multiple plants that were originally planning to manufacture batteries for the EV market are now shifting production into energy storage--a strong and growing demand component for the U.S. battery sector. Some of the biggest spenders for potential future battery-recycling projects include Clarios LLC and American Li-Ion, although many of the largest of these projects are not anticipated to kick off until 2028, when market conditions may have shifted.

Other Recycling Projects

A few U.S. Metals & Minerals recycling projects fall outside of typical metals and batteries. Amermin American Mineral is in a sense bridging the gap between sectors with construction of a Texas plant that will target the recycling of critical minerals from industrial scrap and other end-of-life materials. A special focus of the plant will be processing used drill bits from the oil and gas sector with an aim of reusing valuable tungsten carbide. Tungsten has seen rapid price rises this year; for more on that, see June 1, 2026, article - China Restrictions Lead to Tungsten Supply Crunch.

Key Takeaways

• Construction projects targeting the recycling of metals and batteries mean big business in the U.S.
• More facilities are lining up to extract and process critical minerals from lithium-ion batteries and other end-of-life products to feed a growing supply chain.
• The U.S. battery sector is shifting from EVs to energy storage, which could have an effect on future recycling projects.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).