Black mass recycling calculator

Illustrative defaults

What can a recycler afford to pay for battery black mass, and does it make money at today's metal prices?

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What is black mass, and who is this for?

Black mass

Black mass is the dark powder left after used lithium-ion batteries are discharged, shredded and sorted. It holds the valuable cathode metals (lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese) and the anode graphite. Steel and plastic casings and most of the copper and aluminum foil are separated out earlier and sold as scrap.

How the money flows

A recycler buys black mass, refines it into battery-grade chemicals and sells them. It pays the supplier a payable: a share of the value of the metal inside. This page estimates the recycler's margin per tonne: product revenue, minus that payment, minus refining, freight and impurity costs.

Who it's for

  • Recycling and trading analysts checking a lot or a payable offer
  • Investors seeing how metal prices move recycling economics
  • Newcomers and students learning how the business works

Pick a chemistry on the left and read the margin on the right. Press ? beside any input for a plain explanation. The sensitivity chart shows which assumptions matter most.

Margin per tonne – of black mass
Product revenue – per tonne
Feedstock cost – payables per tonne
Breakeven Li₂CO₃ price –

Revenue to margin

USD per tonne of black mass

Revenue vs. feedstock cost by metal

Which metals earn more than the recycler pays for them

Sensitivity

Change in margin with each input at −20% and +20%

Margin by chemistry

Each preset at the current cathode share, prices, payables and costs

Assumptions and limits

Every default below is a placeholder to be checked against EverBatt, market reports or a real contract. Change any of them in the inputs.

InputDefaultBasis

What the model leaves out

  • Turning whole batteries into black mass (discharging, shredding, sorting) and the copper, aluminum, steel and plastic scrap that step produces.
  • Impurities other than copper and aluminum, such as fluorine and iron.
  • Building the plant: capital cost, financing, taxes and how full the plant runs.
  • The gap between futures and spot prices, and between reference prices and contract terms.
  • Environmental impact. For process-level cost and emissions, see Argonne's EverBatt.