Page 90 from: Recycling International May/June issue
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MARKET ANALYSIS
benefits and the ability to meet the
high-performance demands of mod-
ern automotive production’.
GREEN AND CLEAN
Chinese researchers are claiming a
recovery rate of 99.99% from lithium
recycled from spent lithium-ion bat-
teries using a fast process which elim-
inates the use of harsh chemicals.
They are also claiming rates of
96.86% for nickel, 92.35% for cobalt
and 90.59 % for manganese.
The work of 10 academics from
Central South University, Changsha
and other institutions is reported in
the journal of the German Chemical
Society. The process, called ‘neutral
leaching’, needs just 15 minutes in
laboratory tests to separate out the
desired battery materials. The new
technology and its speed are seen as
big improvements on traditional acid
or/and ammonia leaching techniques.
‘Neutral leaching has been pioneer-
ingly proposed to achieve a low-cost
and harmless hydrometallurgical pro-
cess,’ their report says. ‘It is sturdily
confirmed that the intractable prob-
lem, that effective extraction is avail-
able only under the aggressive acid/
alkali-ion conditions, is well-solved
within a mild leaching atmosphere.
‘This green and efficient strategy in
neutral solution environment opens a
new pathway to realise the large-
scale pollution-free recycling of spent
batteries.’
ALUMINIUM
At the end of March, high-grade alu-
minum (three-month quotation) was
quoted on the LME at US$ 2 540.50
per tonne, lower than four weeks ear-
lier. Aluminum alloy, on the other
hand, rose noticeably from US$ 2 225
at the end of February to US$ 2 559,
perhaps a sign that scrap remains
LME Non-Ferrous Prices Reference date: April 7, 2025
/ Aluminium / Copper
– LME prices (in U.S. dollars/MT) – LME prices (in U.S. dollars/MT)
/ Lead / Zinc
– LME prices (in U.S. dollars/MT) – LME prices (in U.S. dollars/MT)
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
2274 2660 2694 2444 2224 2485 2623 2630 2582 2540 2644 2662 2464
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
9072 9905 10856 9418 9014 9214 9995 9505 9015 8821 9334 9510 9441
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
11000
0
100
200
300
400
500
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
2130 2178 2290 2159 2000 2026 2116 2017 2060 1956 1959 2002 1955
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
0
70
140
210
280
350
420
490
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
2561 2814 3092 2860 2570 2862 3086 3125 3088 2994 2867 2874 2737
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
100
500
900
1300
1700
2100
2500
2900
M A M J J A S O N D J F M
scarce and expensive. Visible stocks
in the LME’s licensed warehouses
continued to decline, recently stand-
ing at just 466 050 tonnes for high-
grade and 1 560 tonnes for alloy.
Scrap prices remained high overall
and rose sharply in some cases.
Extrusion scrap was a US$ 2 596, new
low-copper aluminum cost US$ 2 050
and pure wire scrap traded at around
US$ 2 600.
COPPER
The red metal had broken through
the US$ 10 000 per tonne mark in
recent weeks but then declined
slightly. Nevertheless, it remains at
elevated levels. Grade A copper was
recently quoted in London at US$
9,720. Visible stocks in LME ware-
houses stood at 212 925 tonnes.
As in previous weeks, scrap prices
were aligned with the fixed LME pric-
es and remained high. A sharp
increase in copper exports to the US
88-89-90-91_manonferrous12adv.indd 90 10-04-2025 16:17
