First time poster, long time reader here. I stumbled upon "Iondrive" in a scientific magazine while I was working on a journalistic piece about recycling. The article was about the solution itself. So... I come from the technical side, not the financial side. And the product is simply amazing.
Info: Iondrive is an ASX-listed Australian clean-tech company – focusing on eco-friendly battery recycling and urban mining. Spun out of the University of Adelaide, the company uses a proprietary, non-toxic liquid system called Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) to extract high-value critical metals from the "black mass" of dead EV batteries and e-waste. Their lab trials achieved insane recovery rates - including 100% Nickel, 98.6% Cobalt, and up to 100% Lithium - without using harsh acids or extreme heat of traditional recycling.
For 2026 is that they are currently commissioning their first mobile, containerized pilot plant and have already been integrated into a massive European research consortium alongside Umicore and Porsche Consulting.
Under the strictly enforced EU Battery Regulation, the European market is legally mandated to shift toward a closed-loop economy. By late 2027, the EU is enforcing aggressive material recovery targets—requiring recyclers to successfully extract 90% of Cobalt/Nickel and 50% of Lithium—alongside impending mandatory quotas for recycled content in all new EV batteries.
