Cobalt Blue Holdings (ASX:COB) said it plans to focus efforts at its Broken Hill Technology Center to study the viability of processing battery black mass material recovered from recycled lithium-ion batteries as a domestic feedstock source for the Kwinana cobalt refinery in Western Australia, according to a Tuesday Australian bourse filing.

Black mass is the concentrate left after recycling lithium-ion batteries. Battery packs are dismantled, the cells crushed, and contaminants removed. This produces a dense powder, rich in cathode and anode materials like cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, and graphite.

It is seeking to scale up from bench tests to a fully continuous circuit capable of producing cobalt metal, nickel hydroxide, and manganese sulfate.

The firm successfully tested samples of battery black mass for the extraction of cobalt, nickel, and manganese after signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Ecobatt in December 2024.

The refinery's business plan targets an initial production capacity of around 3,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate and metal. Its early operations will rely on sourcing feed from imported cobalt hydroxide.