Battery recycling holds huge potential for critical mineral recovery: Prof Alexandre Chagnes at CRITMET 2025 in Jamshedpur

Professor Alexandre Chagnes Highlights Advances in Battery Recycling at CRITMET 2025

International Conference CRITMET concludes at CSIR-NML

Jamshedpur, Nov 8: The three-day International Conference CRITMET 2025, organized by CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (CSIR-NML), a Centre of Excellence under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), Ministry of Mines, concluded on a high note with a keynote address by Professor Alexandre Chagnes from Université de Lorraine, GeoRessources, France.

Professor Chagnes, speaking on the final day, shed light on advanced methods of battery recycling, emphasizing its growing importance as a major secondary source for recovering critical minerals. “Battery recycling offers immense potential for sustainable recovery of essential metals while reducing waste and environmental impact,” he said.

The plenary lecture by Professor Eric D. Van Hullebusch from IGP-CNRS, France, also drew attention, as he discussed how natural processes can inspire innovative methods to extract valuable metals from secondary resources such as electronic waste (e-waste). The third day’s technical sessions primarily focused on recycling from secondary sources, highlighting how recycling not only conserves valuable minerals but also prevents waste from entering landfills.

The conference saw active participation from global experts, researchers, and policymakers who deliberated on key themes such as mining, beneficiation, secondary source recovery, international policies, and supply chain management related to critical metals. Scholars from various institutes presented their research through oral and poster sessions.

Awards were presented to recognize outstanding contributions — two First Prizes in the oral category and one in the poster category, along with two Second and two Third Prizes in each. In addition, 15 travel grants were awarded to students and 5 to senior researchers during the valedictory ceremony.

CRITMET 2025 successfully fostered dialogue between technical experts and policymakers, setting a strong foundation for India’s future research and strategy in critical metal exploration, recycling, and sustainable resource management.