The Toronto-based battery-metals company said it would set aside plans to build the refinery and instead focus its efforts on a facility that will recycle “black mass material” into critical metals like lithium, nickel and copper. (The Logic)

Talking point: The decision marks a reversal on Electra’s earlier, more ambitious plans to build an end-to-end refinery complex that would produce critical minerals like cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate. It has sidelined those goals amid “higher material and labour costs, scope expansion, and supply chain disruptions over the past 18 months,” and will instead pivot toward the smaller US$6-million recycling plant, which is currently a demonstration project, the company said in a press release. Electra’s stock, which has plummeted from over $5 to just over $1 within the last year, closed up nearly six per cent Wednesday.