Nevada battery recycler to build $3.5B plant in S. Carolina

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A battery recycler from Nevada says it will spend $3.5 billion and hire 1,500 workers on a new plant near the South Carolina coast. Redwood Materials says it plans to pull out key components of batteries such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper, and reuse them to make electrodes for electric vehicles. The South Carolina plant in Berkeley County near Ridgeville will drive down battery costs and emissions to build them and will also reduce reliance on foreign firms since currently so many components for electric vehicle batteries are made overseas. Redwood Materials says it will work with companies like Panasonic, Volkswagen, Volvo, Proterra and Envision to build its recycled batteries and plants to open the South Carolina plant in 2023.