Bridge Green Upcycle has signed an eight-year commercial agreement with Hartree Partners for lithium carbonate produced through its battery-recycling operations, with the deal valued at between $500 million and $1 billion at current market conditions, the company said.
Under the agreement, Hartree, a global commodities trading firm, will receive exclusive marketing rights for lithium carbonate produced by Bridge Green during the term. Hartree will purchase and market approximately 10,000 metric tonnes of lithium carbonate a year across all grades produced at Bridge Green facilities.
Bridge Green Upcycle is a US-based urban-mining company that recovers critical materials from end-of-life and scrap lithium-ion batteries. Its operations include a facility at Gummidipoondi, linking the commercial agreement to the industrial belt north of Chennai.
The company said Hartree has also made an equity investment in Bridge Green’s funding round. The investment will support the expansion of battery recycling and critical-mineral refining, according to the company.
The agreement places a long-term commercial arrangement around the recovery of materials from discarded lithium-ion batteries. Rather than treating end-of-life batteries only as waste, Bridge Green’s model involves processing them to recover lithium and other critical materials for further refining and sale.
The scale specified in the agreement is approximately 10,000 metric tonnes a year, while the stated value range reflects current market conditions over the eight-year term. The company did not provide further details in the announcement on the investment amount, the commissioning schedule for expanded capacity or the grades of lithium carbonate that will be produced at individual facilities.
Bridge Green founder and chief executive Balki Iyer described the agreement as a defining milestone and a step towards developing a circular supply chain for the company. Hartree’s exclusive marketing role means the commodities firm will handle the purchase and marketing of lithium carbonate produced by Bridge Green during the agreement period.
The expansion will depend on the company’s plans for battery recycling and critical-mineral refining, which are to be funded in part by Hartree’s equity investment. The agreement gives Bridge Green a committed commercial channel for its planned output, while the company’s facilities will remain responsible for recovering and producing the lithium carbonate covered by the deal.
