Rare earth recycling bet: Attero lines up a ₹2,000 crore expansion plan over the next three years

₹2,000 crore over the next three years to expand its battery recycling and critical minerals refining capacity, said co-founder and CEO Nitin Gupta.The company aims to scale up its rare earth recovery and recycling capacity in India to 100 tonne per day, from the current 1 tonne."Our (lithium ion) battery recycling capacity will increase to almost 300,000 tonne per annum from the current 17,000 tonne, almost 15 times the expansion," he said.Attero currently recovers rare earth elements from used permanent magnets and exports its recycled rare earth products. It recovers minerals such as neodymium and seramium that find end use in the permanent magnets in automotive and defence sectors.At a time when India is exploring ways to become self-reliant in critical minerals used in batteries, renewable energy components, defence and IT equipment, recycling of e-waste is increasingly seen as a major way to source these materials.India generates over 3.8 million tonne of e-waste annually.

While a significant portion still moves through informal routes, the share of formal processing is steadily increasing due to the enforcement of extended producer responsibility (EPR) and stricter compliance norms.Gupta expects domestic demand to pick up as new capacities come up under the recently announced ₹7,800 crore magnet manufacturing scheme of the heavy industries ministry.The company currently recycles rare earth elements at its Roorkee plant. It recently invested around ₹150 crore to expand its recycling and R&D network.