Investor information
EcoMinería (Ecoprojects), a founding partner of EcoBaterías, operated a hydrometallurgical plant in Lampa that returned the recovered minerals to mining. EcoBaterías’ new plant, which will receive and process the batteries, is under review by the Seremi de Salud RM (Chile’s regional health authority).
Under the EcoBaterías model, the company is paid twice for the same material: an intake fee for every tonne of battery that enters the plant, and the market price of the mineral that leaves it. Demand for the first is driven by Chile’s Extended Producer Responsibility law (Ley REP, Law No. 20,920); demand for the second comes from copper mining, which imported 1,418 t of cobalt sulfate in 2025 (Chilean Customs Service), the input the Lampa plant produced. Testing: available. Recycling and final disposal: through authorized receiving facilities; own capacity in the permitting process before the Seremi de Salud RM, on which intake at a plant of our own and mineral sales depend.
Updated October 9, 2026 · Reviewed by the EcoBaterías technical team.
This page summarizes the business model for information purposes. It is not an offer to invest nor a financial recommendation, and the projections are unaudited in-house estimates that rest on assumptions which may not hold.
What makes battery recycling unusual is that the raw material arrives with a negative cost: the waste holder pays to dispose of it properly, because an end-of-life battery is handled as hazardous waste under Supreme Decree (DS) 148 unless a characterization shows otherwise, and its destination has to be documented. The recycling price for lithium-ion batteries, managed today with authorized receiving facilities, is published on our recycling price section.
The margin therefore does not hang on a single commodity price: it rests on two different curves, one regulatory and one commercial.
Inbound volume is pushed by regulation. Law No. 20,920 is in force and obliges producers to fund the collection and valorization of what they place on the market; the specific battery targets will be set by a decree the Ministry of the Environment must propose before 2027-01-29. The detail is in Chile’s EPR law and batteries and, for photovoltaic modules, in Supreme Decree (DS) 22/2025 applied to solar panels.
| Category | Estimated waste (2026) | Recycled today |
|---|---|---|
| Lithium-ion batteries | 1,100 t | ≈0% |
| Lead-acid batteries | 44,400 t | ≈90% |
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Source: impact assessment of the draft battery decree, Ministry of the Environment (Res. Ex. 821/2026) (opens in a new tab) · 2026-09-18
That last column is the thesis in one line: the lithium-ion stream exists, it is growing, and it has almost no final destination inside the country. Anyone who needs to hand over that waste today looks for an authorized lithium battery waste manager and checks where to recycle lithium batteries in Chile. The full market context is in the lithium battery market in Chile.
The stream grows with electromobility and storage. This is our estimate of the lithium batteries that will reach end of life:
| Year | Tonnes per year | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| 2030 | ≈1,500 t | Electric vehicles only; excludes BESS |
| 2035 | ≈2,500 t | Lithium batteries |
| 2040 | ≈5,500 t | Lithium batteries |
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Source: EcoBaterías in-house estimate, not a declared figure · 2026-10-06
On the outbound side, copper mining uses cobalt sulfate in electrowinning and imports it today: 60 to 80% comes from China (Chilean Customs Service, tariff line 2833.29.10). If EcoBaterías supplied liquid product to every electrowinning operation in the country, it would sell about USD 5.3 million a year (in-house estimate).
| Year | Tonnes | CIF value (USD million) | USD per kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1,103 | 16.55 | 15.00 |
| 2023 | 1,453 | 11.05 | 7.60 |
| 2024 | 1,209 | 6.52 | 5.39 |
| 2025 | 1,418 | 8.70 | 6.13 |
| Jan–Aug 2026 | 698 | 8.28 | 11.87 |
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Source: Chilean Customs Service (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas) (opens in a new tab), imports under tariff line 2833.29.10, excluding laboratory lots · 2026-10-06
The figures below come from the cash flow of the first plant, at an intake fee of 10 UF per tonne, less than half the published price. They are an unaudited in-house projection built on volume, price and cost assumptions that may not hold; they are published to explain the shape of the curve, not to promise a result. Volume comes from phone batteries and e-waste, electric vehicles, and imports of batteries and black mass from the region.
| Plan year | Tonnes processed | Sales (USD) | EBITDA (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 144 | 349,962 | −80,503 |
| Year 2 | 1,012 | 2,138,227 | 1,063,305 |
| Year 3 | 1,521 | 2,981,209 | 1,609,811 |
| Year 4 | 2,125 | 3,990,652 | 2,143,709 |
| Year 5 | 2,854 | 5,219,123 | 2,539,082 |
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Source: cash flow of the EcoBaterías first plant · unaudited in-house projection · 2026-10-06
The curve has three phases. Year 1 operates for only three months and closes with negative EBITDA. From year 2 the volume covers the plant’s fixed cost and EBITDA is positive. In year 5 EBITDA is about 49% of sales, on 2,854 t processed: about 9.5 t per working day, above the 5 t per day threshold that requires the plant to enter Chile’s environmental impact assessment system (SEIA).
The projected return of the plan is 47% at the 10 UF per tonne fee, after tax. It is an in-house estimate subject to the same assumptions as the table, and how it is built is reviewed in the data room under a confidentiality agreement.
The moat is not the machinery, which can be bought: it is the permit and the destination of the material. The Lampa plant, operated by EcoMinería (Ecoprojects), a founding partner of EcoBaterías, held a 2020 health permit from the Seremi de Salud RM issued in its name, and the new plant is under review by the same authority. Used batteries are hazardous waste and nobody may export them while there is local capacity to treat them (Basel Convention, art. 4.9): they have to be valorized in Chile. What leaves the plant are products with a specification and a buyer, shipped as class 9 dangerous goods rather than as waste. The detail is in the Basel Convention and lithium batteries.
On the product side there is market evidence: the hydrometallurgical plant of Codelco El Teniente successfully tested recycled cobalt sulfate, delivered in solution (testing from November 2023; results published in July 2024): 22% lower cost and 40% lower consumption than imported sulfate, with one daily addition instead of three. The El Rancagüino article of 2024-07-15 (opens in a new tab) does not name the supplier. The detail is in the Codelco El Teniente test.
Not every line is at the same stage, and this page says so explicitly so that nobody discounts revenue from a capability that is still under review. Testing: available, as are repair, second life, solar panels and pickup. Recycling and final disposal: through authorized receiving facilities; own capacity in the permitting process.
Through authorized receiving facilities
Recycling lithium-ion batteries, managed with authorized receiving facilities, costs 22 UF per tonne + VAT; the authorized receiving facility closes the SIDREP declaration and issues the valorization certificate. With the new plant, this is the line that generates the model’s intake fee. See lithium battery recycling for companies.
Under review by the Seremi de Salud RM
The Lampa hydrometallurgical plant was operated by EcoMinería (Ecoprojects), a founding partner, under a 2020 Seremi de Salud RM health permit issued in its name. Mineral sales, the model’s second revenue stream, depend on the new plant.
Available
State-of-health testing, repair and refurbishment of packs before deciding their route. See testing, repair and lithium battery refurbishment.
Available
Grading and matching of modules for stationary storage. See second-life batteries.
Available
Testing, repair, refurbishment, reuse and recycling of modules, including solar plant repowering. See solar panel testing, refurbished panels and solar plant repowering.
Available
We coordinate pickup with licensed hazardous-waste carriers anywhere in Chile. See collection and transport of batteries and panels.
Source: datos/empresa.json by EcoBaterías, status reviewed on 2026-10-09.
The questions that come up most often in a review, with the answer we put in writing.
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Permits and environmental procedures | The Lampa plant operated under a 2020 health permit from the Seremi de Salud RM for the hydrometallurgical process, issued in the name of EcoMinería (Ecoprojects): the founding partner has already walked the regulatory path once. The new plant is under review by the Seremi de Salud RM. |
| Battery supply slower than expected | Local volume complemented with material from other Latin American countries and with black mass, without changing the plant process. |
| Changes in the battery decree | Today’s known targets come from a draft and may change; the model does not depend on a specific target, but on waste needing a verifiable final destination. |
| Price of recovered minerals | Two independent revenue streams: the intake fee sustains operations when mineral prices fall. |
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Detailed material is shared under a confidentiality agreement with counterparties in due diligence. It includes the financial plan and its assumptions, the permitting file of the new plant, the technical record of the process, and the detailed assumptions behind the per-tonne export advantage calculation.
If you would rather start with what is public, the process step by step and who we are explain where the Lampa plant came from and how it operated.
We give access to the data room under a confidentiality agreement: financial plan with its assumptions, the permitting file of the new plant and the technical record of the process. Tell us what kind of investor you represent and we reply within 48 business hours.