R3 Lithium buys bankrupt battery recycler's plant for $3M, restarts production
What's the deal? R3 LithiumDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired a Covington, Georgia lithium carbonate recycling facility from bankrupt Ascend Elements for $3 million in cash and restarted production. The company also secured $15 million in Series A funding to upgrade the plant's existing production line.
Why now? Ascend Elements built the Covington facility for $50 million and began commercial operation in 2023, but filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2026. In August, a US Bankruptcy Court approved a liquidation plan that included the plant's sale to R3 Lithium.
What's the endgame? The facility can process 30,000 metric tons a year of used lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap, producing 2,500 mt/y of 99% purity lithium carbonate, with room for a second line. R3 Lithium said it expects the plant to account for more than 50% of US lithium carbonate production in 2027.
Who's backing it? Investors in the Series A round include Integral GlobalTech PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, TDK VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Axial PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. R3 Lithium said it holds about $1 billion in offtake agreements with customers including commodities trader TrafiguraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — which had signed a 15,000 mt supply deal with Ascend Elements in November 2025.
Key hire: R3 Lithium's chief technology officer is Eric Gratz, a co-founder of Ascend Elements. Gratz holds 43 patents in battery materials and lithium-ion recycling technology and sits on the technology committee of the US Department of Energy's Li-Bridge partnership — bringing the plant's original technical expertise to its new owner.
"The US has spent years discussing critical mineral independence while the vast majority of lithium processing has remained overseas," said Linh Austin, president and chief executive officer of R3 Lithium. The company says it has "a proven facility that has already produced the product, the team that made it happen, and the capital needed to upgrade the line and keep it running, at commercial scale."
The signal: The deal shows how distressed cleantech assets can pass cheaply to new operators betting on US critical-mineral supply. R3 Lithium paid $3 million for a plant that cost $50 million to build — and is wagering the domestic processing gap will reward whoever keeps it running.
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
