| Electra Battery Materials Corporation | |
| Traded As: | NASDAQ: |
| Area Served: | North America |
| Key People: | Trent Mell, CEO |
| Industry: | Metals and mining |
| Foundation: | March 2017, as First Cobalt Corp. |
| Website: | https://electrabmc.com |
Electra Battery Materials Corporation (EBMC, formerly First Cobalt Corp.) is a Canadian multinational corporation engaged in mining and refining raw materials for electric batteries. Electra owns and operates the first fully permitted metallurgical refinery in North America for producing battery-grade cobalt and nickel sulfate.[1] The company also owns the Iron Creek cobalt-copper deposit in Lemhi County, Idaho, US.[2]
Cobalt has historically been obtained as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining.[3] The electric vehicle boom in the 2010s created an increased demand for cobalt as a component of electric batteries. In response to that, Electra (First Cobalt Corporation at the time) emerged as a pure-play cobalt exploration and mining company in 2017.[4] The company completed a three way merger with CobalTech Mining Inc. and Cobalt One Ltd to consolidate its ownership of cobalt assets in the Ontario cobalt camp.[5] [6]
First Cobalt acquired junior explorer US Cobalt in 2018 and took ownership of its Iron Creek cobalt-copper project.[7] The Iron Creek deposit is located in the Idaho Cobalt Belt, which is the second largest known source of cobalt in the United States. In a 2019 estimate, First Cobalt defined an indicated resource of 6000 tons of cobalt and 13,000 tons of copper contained in this deposit.[8] [9] By 2021, the company doubled its land position surrounding the Iron Creek project.[10]
In late 2021, the company announced the creation of Electra Battery Materials Park at its Ontario refinery site, with the addition of a recycling plant for expired Lithium-ion batteries.[11] Soon after, the company changed its name to Electra Battery Materials to reflect the strategic shift from being a pure-play cobalt miner toward refining and recycling a wider variety of battery materials.[12] In June 2022, Electra started preliminary discussions with the Quebec government to build a second cobalt refinery in the Bécancour Industrial Park.[13]
In December 2022, Electra launched a black mass (shredded remains of Li-ion batteries) recycling trial and demonstrated capability to extract lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, and graphite at scale.[14] [15]
In August 2024, the United States Department of Defense announced a million award to Electra for the completion of the Ontario refinery and to start production of cobalt sulfate.[16]