R3 Lithium has begun operations at its 154,000-square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia, to produce lithium carbonate from 100% recycled battery materials.

The company also announced $15 million in Series A funding from investors including Integral GlobalTech Partners, TDK Ventures and Axial Partners. R3 Lithium acquired the facility in July 2026 and retained the leadership team that demonstrated commercial-scale recycled lithium production at the site in 2025.

The new funding will support upgrades to the existing lithium carbonate production line. R3 Lithium said the line was the first in U.S. history to produce 99% purity lithium carbonate from 100% recycled content at production scale.

The Covington facility has 30,000 metric tons of battery-material shredding capacity and a 2,500-metric-ton lithium carbonate production line. Space is allocated for an additional 2,500-metric-ton line.

R3 Lithium holds approximately $1 billion in signed lithium carbonate offtake agreements. Customers include Trafigura. The company is investing to move the Covington operation to continuous commercial production.

The facility processes recycled battery materials from shredding through lithium carbonate production at one site. Its shredding lines will process manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries into black mass.

R3 Lithium then extracts lithium from the black mass using a calciner-based crystallization and water-based precipitation process. The company said the process does not require primary mining or non-domestic refining.

The remaining concentrated metal oxide contains nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite. R3 Lithium sells this material separately.

The company projects the Covington facility will account for more than 50% of total U.S. lithium carbonate production in 2027.

R3 Lithium plans to expand through a network of lithium carbonate and black mass shredding facilities across North America and Europe. The company said the facilities will use modular 5,000-metric-ton-per-year units and be deployed with supporting offtake agreements.

The company said its approach provides a pathway for recovering lithium from batteries already in circulation while expanding domestic processing capacity.