Duncan Wyatt is an internationally respected voice in the mineral process engineering and technology arena. Currently critical minerals and hydrometallurgical solutions director at Metso, he will bring valuable insights to discussions about sustainable processing of critical minerals and battery metals to this month’s IMARC in Sydney.
Richard Roberts, Mining Beacon editor, caught up with him ahead of the event.
Richard Roberts: You’ve been around the mineral processing industry for more than 30 years, starting in Tasmania (Renison tin), then South Australia (Geologics) before plus-20 years with Outotec in Australia and Canada. Now Metso for the past four years in Perth. Have you seen enough of the world, or do you still enjoy the travel part of working in mining?
Duncan Wyatt: When I first left Tasmania the travel aspect was certainly very appealing. I have been fortunate to have visited too many countries to count and every continent except Antarctica, although I did consider a one-year break to work on an Antarctic research project aligned with Tasmanian University before I moved to South Australia.
More than the travel it has been the people I have met at various mine sites and companies that have been the highlight. The Australian mining sector is very large but within it there are many connected communities and talented people.
Richard Roberts: Speaking of change, Australia has become the global supply hub for lithium minerals in recent years. What have been the most significant, or impactful, changes you’ve seen in the lithium and related processing arenas?
Duncan Wyatt: Yes, it has been a profound and rapid change. I was involved with mineral processing projects at both Greenbushes and Wodgina in the mid-90s but at that time tin and tantalum were the target minerals and spodumene was either rejected or less commercially viable.
However, the surge in personal electronic devices which oddly enough drove the demand for tin and tantalum also created the impetus for lithium usage to become widespread. Starting in 1985 with the development by Akira Yoshino, a Japanese chemist, of the first lithium battery technology, Sony began commercialisation for its range of products.
By the 1990s Greenbushes had begun supplying lithium to China for the production of lithium hydroxide for batteries. It is the latest surge in consumer demand that has driven the recent developments, with EV cars requiring an order of magnitude larger lithium battery than the personal electronic devices that started the industry.
Now battery-grade lithium hydroxide is produced here in Western Australia using local spodumene as a lithium source. Metso has been at the forefront of optimising the downstream processing of spodumene to lithium hydroxide. The Metso leach process is environmentally sustainable: acid and sulphate free, without undesired crystallised salts or by-products, producing inert and neutral mineral residue for re-use or disposal.
Richard Roberts: On the very topical battery materials/black mass recycling – or urban mining – front, what has most caught your attention, in terms of technology development, market trends, etc, in the past 2-3 years, and why?
Duncan Wyatt: Recycling of lithium batteries is an emerging field which has struggled for a commercial basis due to a number of factors. Feedstock quality and variability, as well as future trends for different lithium battery chemistries that would require alternative recycling process routes, have made this process challenging.
In the Asia Pacific region several companies in South Korea and China are utilising manufacturing scrap, which is material that has not made it through the rigorous EV lithium battery manufacturing process, as their main source of feed. These companies are typically EV manufacturers or strategically linked, with facilities local to their partner.
Metso technologies for solvent extraction, which play a key role in the recycling of black mass, are beginning to penetrate the processing space due to their highly efficient unit processes and based off our know-how in the field, which is centred around our R&D team in Pori, Finland. Our recent work with battery-grade nickel, cobalt and manganese producers has reduced recycling, MHP, or nickel matte processing stages from over 100 to between 20-30 using Metso technologies and know-how.
This trend away from traditional local processing designs and basic equipment is driven by commercial realities, focusing on total cost of ownership, including plant footprint, power and services requirements as well as operational costs. Complex processing facilities with too many processing stages also require expensive solvent extraction chemicals.
Richard Roberts: Battery black mass recycling is quickly emerging as a vital process for the future. “This is such a fast-moving field that it’s hard to predict the future,” says Metso’s Madeleine Scheidema. What sort of challenges/opportunities does this rate of change present?
Duncan Wyatt: The rapidly changing landscape of battery chemistry means we must be agile to meet the market needs and in particular those of our clients both new and existing. The challenge is to tackle the issues at hand while constantly looking to future trends to ensure our know-how and capabilities lead the sector.
Richard Roberts: Metso obviously inherited some technologies and process know-how through its merger with Outotec. Is it fair to say some of this tech/know-how has increased in value – given the range/weight of applications – and continues to grow in value?
Duncan Wyatt: Certainly, as an alternative to smelting, hydrometallurgical processing can be an option. Metso’s hydrometallurgical know-how in pressure leaching using proprietary autoclave designs as well as BIOX based leaching processes are leading the way in processing of both complex gold and copper deposits as well as historical tailings deposits.
Downstream, our solvent extraction technologies and processing design capabilities are driving our entry into the businesses that are central to the energy transition and EV manufacturing, as well as base metals applications for copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc. We hope our existing clients can benefit from these advancements and that our new clients, aiming to stay competitive in the circular energy transition economy, also benefit. With our purpose to enable sustainable modern life, we aim to create solutions to accelerate sustainability in the industries we operate in.
Richard Roberts: What has happened to pilot and other testing levels at Pori and other Metso facilities – specifically in these alkaline leach process, lithium hydroxide process and mineral/metal recycling areas – over the past, say, five years?
Duncan Wyatt: As I said, our know-how in Pori is paramount to both our ability to develop novel processes for these many new downstream processing routes key to battery manufacturing and recycling, as well as utilisation of more complex base and precious metal ore bodies. Our bench-scale and piloting facilities give us an great competitive advantage. One area where this is illustrated is in the new demonstration scale pilot plant to support Metso’s new pCAM Reactor and associated plant. The production of NCM [nickel, cobalt and manganese) based cathodes for lithium-based EV batteries make up about 50% of the world’s lithium battery requirements.
Metso has developed a proprietary reactor and associated process that we believe provides a more sustainable route to produce these key pre-cursor materials for the cathode manufacturing process.
Our demonstration scale plant at Pori enables clients developing plants worldwide to trial chemistries and pCAM product specifications to support commercialisation, knowing that Metso will remain their processing partner through concept demonstration, financial investment decision and project execution.
Richard Roberts: How much activity are you seeing in the next few years?
Duncan Wyatt: Activity in copper and gold is forecast to be high, with battery material lifting by the end of 2028. At Metso our activity level is always high. The project cycle is significant for many of these new process routes and associated projects – a lot of work is ongoing with testing, studies and plant designs.
Richard Roberts: Where, geographically, are you seeing high, or increasing, levels of activity? Are the drivers the same or different?
Duncan Wyatt: The adoption of EV cars in the Asia Pacific region is leading the world, with countries like Thailand seeing extraordinary acceleration in take-up rates. We know that this rate of adoption will fuel local interest in battery materials and recycling, and we are committed to offer our services in these regions where demand presents.
Richard Roberts: Obviously upfront cost/lifecycle costs are going to affect adoption rates, but what is separating the leading technologies in the market today from a design/performance point of view?
Duncan Wyatt: Whilst many are keen to enter the market, we have seen some companies make missteps either in underestimating the demanding requirements to produce battery grade end-products, or in the costs to execute projects and ramp them up to produce end-products compliant with the demanding specifications of the industry.
Looking solely at the upfront or “equipment costs” in isolation undervalues the presence of a major partner during the process development, implementation and optimisation stages of any project. Metso’s global footprint, resources and know-how hopefully provide the value proposition that will see us partner with many in this significant market sector in the near term and for many years to come.
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Duncan Wyatt
Director, Battery Minerals Solutions
Metso
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