Japanese electronics firm TDK has invested in US battery recycler R3 Lithium, which is restarting a lithium carbonate recovery plant in Covington, Georgia, that it bought out of the Ascend Elements bankruptcy.
TDK's corporate venture arm, TDK Ventures, joined R3's oversubscribed $15mn Series A round alongside Integral GlobalTech Partners and Axial Partners. Tokyo-based TDK makes passive components, sensors and lithium-ion batteries.
TDK Ventures had backed the plant's recovery technology during its earlier development at Battery Resourcers, which later became Ascend Elements.
Massachusetts-based Ascend filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Texas court on 9 April, citing cost overruns and contractor disputes at its unfinished Apex 1 plant in Kentucky. The US government had also cancelled a $164mn grant for that project.
The court approved the sale of Covington to R3 in June for $3mn in cash, with R3 assuming the site's liabilities. Former Ascend chief executive Linh Austin now leads R3.
The 154,000ft² Covington facility has 30,000 metric tonne (t)/yr of shredding capacity and a 2,500 t/yr lithium carbonate recovery line, with space to double capacity. It recovers lithium carbonate from recycled black mass, with concentrated metal oxides sold as a by-product. Ascend demonstrated production there in 2025, and R3 is targeting continuous commercial production in 2027.
R3 holds long-term offtake agreements with counterparties, including Trafigura, which it said could be worth about $1bn over their full terms.
