North America just got its first new kind of lithium refinery

Mangrove Lithium has opened what it says is North America’s first commercial electrochemical lithium refinery, a 1,000-tonne-per-year plant in Delta, British Columbia, aimed at strengthening the continent’s EV battery supply chain.

The new site – known as the Single Stack Plant (SSP) – is Mangrove’s first commercial lithium-refining facility and its new headquarters. The company marked the opening with a ribbon-cutting in Delta.

Most of the world’s lithium is still refined overseas, which creates bottlenecks and price volatility. As EV adoption ramps up, North America has been racing to bring more of that supply chain closer to home.

Mangrove’s approach is different from traditional lithium refining. The company uses a proprietary electrochemical process to convert extracted lithium into battery-grade material, which it says is more economical, flexible, and sustainable than conventional chemical methods.