NavPrakriti, an eastern India-based lithium-ion battery recycling and refurbishment company, has announced plans to invest over ₹1 billion (~$10.7 million) to set up a greenfield critical minerals refining facility in Odisha.

The company plans to begin operations by the financial year 2029.

The proposed facility will process up to 5,000 metric tons per annum of end-of-life batteries and focus on extracting key materials, including lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

The development follows the company being considered eligible under the National Critical Mineral Mission, a central government initiative aimed at strengthening domestic supply chains for critical minerals.

The facility is designed to enable high-purity recovery of these materials, supporting India’s efforts to reduce dependence on imports and build a circular economy around battery resources.

As part of its growth strategy, NavPrakriti plans to build partnerships with more than 150 battery original equipment manufacturers and producers over the next three years.

The Odisha facility is part of India’s broader push to develop domestic capabilities in critical mineral recovery, particularly as demand for lithium-ion batteries rises with the expansion of electric mobility and renewable energy storage.

NavPrakriti currently operates its first recycling unit in Serampore, West Bengal, with an annual processing capacity of 12,000 tons, scalable to 24,000 tons. The upcoming Odisha facility will be its second greenfield unit and will be dedicated specifically to refining and extraction of critical minerals from spent batteries.

The company is also investing in research and development through collaborations with national and international institutions to advance technologies in chemical recovery and battery refurbishment, which are key to improving efficiency and recovery rates in recycling operations.

NavPrakriti has also entered into a partnership with NASH Energy to manage end-of-life batteries and production scrap through a closed-loop recycling model.

The Union Budget 2026–27 placed clean energy and manufacturing at the center of India’s growth strategy, unveiling targeted outlays, customs duty rationalization, and policy reforms to accelerate the growth of critical minerals, renewables, and electric vehicles.

Budget 2026 takes a strategic view of raw material security by fully exempting customs duties on cobalt powder, lithium-ion battery scrap, and waste and scrap of lead and zinc, among other critical minerals.

In November last year, the Union Cabinet approved a program to promote the manufacturing of sintered rare earth permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and renewable energy, with a financial outlay of ₹72.8 billion (~$815.73 million).