A RECYCLING METHOD FOR RECOVERY OF VALUABLE METAL ELEMENTS FROM WASTE BATTERY MATERIALS

A method of recycling a waste battery cathode material comprising lithium and at least one of nickel, cobalt and/or manganese, the method comprising: heating the waste battery cathode material in a reducing atmosphere to form a heat-treated waste battery cathode material comprising LiF and one or more of LijO, LiOH, and LijCOs; washing the heat-treated waste battery cathode material in an aqueous solvent to extract both lithium containing species and fluorine containing species, wherein the aqueous solvent does not contain an alkaline earth hydroxide or other species intended to reduce or prevent soluble fluorine species remaining dissolved in the aqueous solvent; separating the aqueous solvent comprising lithium and fluorine species from the heat-treated waste battery material; after separating the aqueous solvent comprising lithium and fluorine species from the heat-treated waste battery material, treating the aqueous solvent to separate lithium species from fluorine species; recovering the lithium species as lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate; forming an acidic aqueous recycling feed comprising one or more of nickel, cobalt and/or manganese by leaching the heat-treated waste battery cathode material with an inorganic acid after the step of separating the aqueous solvent from the heat-treated waste battery material; and recovering one or more of nickel, cobalt and/or manganese from the acidic aqueous recycling feed via one or more further process steps selected from solvent extraction, solid phase extraction, electrochemical extraction, and precipitation processes.