Nth Cycle–Glencore $1bn offtake: project SHIELD implications for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Nth Cycle has signed a binding 10-year offtake term sheet with Glencore worth an estimated $1 billion, securing 100% of black mass feedstock from Glencore’s US shredding network for Project SHIELD, its planned South Carolina battery materials refinery. The deal covers offtake of high-purity mixed hydroxide precipitate (nickel/cobalt MHP) and battery-grade lithium carbonate, and includes assessing an existing Glencore US site to accelerate construction alongside Nth Cycle’s 21,000-square-foot Fairfield, Ohio facility. Both parties will also evaluate deploying Nth Cycle’s portable ‘Oyster’ electrochemical refining system for black mass, copper and rare earth recovery in Europe and globally.
Technical Brief
- The Oyster system applies an electrochemical separation process to selectively recover nickel and cobalt from black mass.
- Oyster is also configured for processing mined rock and scrap streams, not only end-of-life batteries.
- Collaboration scope explicitly includes rare earth element and copper recovery using Oyster at non-US sites.
- Glencore’s contribution leverages existing US shredding assets, reducing pre-processing requirements for SHIELD’s black mass feed.
- Nth Cycle reports binding term sheets now cover 100% of Project SHIELD’s forecast feedstock and product offtake.
- Definitive contracts for black mass supply and MHP/lithium carbonate offtake are targeted for execution by end-2026.
Our Take
With this Glencore offtake on top of the earlier 10‑year, $1.1 billion Trafigura deal for nickel, lithium and cobalt, Nth Cycle now has long‑dated commitments from two of the largest global traders, which materially de‑risks financing for its U.S. refining build‑out in Fairfield, Ohio and South Carolina.
The $100 million DOE critical minerals grant combined with the SPAC merger valuation of $585 million signals that U.S. policy and capital markets are effectively underwriting Nth Cycle’s shift from a technology developer into a mid‑stream critical minerals refiner anchored in the U.S. supply chain.
Glencore’s move to channel 100% of black mass feed from its U.S. shredding assets into Nth Cycle’s facilities gives it a downstream outlet in North America at a time when our database shows most other recent cobalt and nickel items are still focused on primary mining rather than closed‑loop battery recycling.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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