Rocklink India Sets Up Integrated Battery and Rare Earth Recycling Facility in Uttar Pradesh

Rocklink India, a wholly owned Rocklink enterprise, has announced the establishment of its first integrated recycling facility in India at the UPSIDC Industrial Area in Sikandrabad, Uttar Pradesh. The facility provides complete recycling capabilities to process lithium-ion batteries, rare earth magnets and metal-bearing industrial waste, which helps India build its system for essential material recovery and circular supply chains.

The facility includes an initial lithium-ion battery recycling capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year, along with rare earth magnet dismantling and processing operations of 60 tonnes per month. The company will complete its rare earth chloride processing line, which has a production capacity of 1,500 tonnes per year, in Q1 2026 to enhance its rare earth processing capabilities.

Commenting on the development, Leonard Alexander Ansorge, Director of Rocklink India, said, “The establishment of this facility marks an important step in building advanced recycling infrastructure for critical materials in India. With capabilities to process lithium-ion batteries and rare earth magnets, we aim to support the development of a circular ecosystem for critical raw materials that are essential to electric mobility, renewable energy systems and advanced manufacturing.”

Rocklink India’s EPR-registered lithium-ion battery recycling plant is designed to process 95 different types of pre- and post-consumer battery scrap materials. The company completed the commissioning phase of its self-developed lithium-ion recycling technology (R2), which safely processes battery scrap into valuable components while removing hazardous volatile organic compounds.

The technology enables the facility to process multiple battery formats, sizes and cell chemistries while capturing volatile organic compounds through an encapsulated process and advanced waste gas treatment systems. The recycling process achieves over 98 percent recovery efficiency for metals such as aluminium, copper and iron, while producing high-purity black mass suitable for further refining.

In addition to recycling, the company plans to integrate battery refurbishment operations into the facility. This will enable the safe reuse of viable battery cells through international standards for testing, balancing and pack manufacturing, extending battery life cycles and improving resource efficiency.

The facility also includes dedicated capabilities for rare earth magnet recycling, covering permanent magnet alloys such as NdFeB, SmCo and AlNiCo, which are commonly used in electric motors, generators and industrial equipment. Semi-automated dismantling lines will process magnet-containing assemblies into homogeneous batches, improving traceability and recycling efficiency.

Rocklink India is also expanding its Magcycle reverse logistics model, previously implemented in Europe since 2018, to the Indian market. The system enables the structured collection and routing of magnet scrap into appropriate recycling channels while strengthening circular material flows.

The company follows a ‘Know Your Material (KYM)’ approach, supported by in-house laboratory testing and grading systems that analyse elemental composition and surface oxidation to determine the most suitable recycling pathway. Materials not suitable for direct recycling routes will be processed into rare earth chlorides at the upcoming facility’s processing unit, which operates a 22-metre direct-heated rotary kiln for the safe calcination of metal-bearing industrial waste.

Through collaborations with technology startups, research institutions and government stakeholders, Rocklink India aims to advance dismantling automation, improve material recovery efficiencies and contribute to India’s long-term efforts to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical raw materials.