American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) has been contracted and approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency to recycle end-of-life lithium-ion batteries from what it claims is the largest battery cleanup operation in EPA history. The approval covers batteries damaged in a January 2025 fire at a Northern California grid-scale battery energy storage system, which involved approximately 100,000 lithium-ion battery modules. ABTC’s Nevada facility is now handling these materials under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act oversight.

ABTC says it successfully completed an EPA audit and review in spring 2025, establishing itself as one of the only recyclers in the Western US qualified to handle CERCLA-classified damaged batteries, such as those affected by significant thermal events and fires.

ABTC’s in-house recycling technologies recover lithium, cobalt, nickel, aluminum, steel,and copper from batteries, keeping valuable materials out of landfills and supporting domestic critical mineral supply chains. If ABTC processes all materials from the site, it estimates the recycled products could be valued at approximately $30 million at current prices.

“This unprecedented cleanup effort highlights the critical importance of building and deploying advanced domestic critical mineral recycling infrastructure capable of addressing the growing challenges of managing damaged lithium-ion batteries in a safe and responsible manner,” said Ryan Melsert, CEO of ABTC. “We are proud that we have established ABTC as one of the only recyclers in the Western US to be capable of receiving CERCLA materials, and that we have already been processing truckloads of CERCLA material from this project for the past several weeks.”

Source: American Battery Technology Company