Nth Cycle announces $1.1 billion agreement with Trafigura, expanding U.S. and Europe Operations
The agreement represents the largest multi-metal offtake agreement between a recycled black mass supplier and critical mineral refiner. It was signed at the inaugural Indo-Pacific Energy Security Forum in Tokyo.
A lot has happened for Nth Cycle since the company graduated from the 2018 cohort of Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Megan O’Connor, the founder of Boston-based Nth Cycle, opened a 21,000-square-foot refining facility in Fairfield, OH, secured $7.2 million under the Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C) program of the “Inflation Reduction Act,” and closed a $44 million series B. Those accomplishments just scrape the surface of their progress.
Last week, the company announced another major milestone. The team signed a 10-year binding agreement with Trafigura, disclosing that the transaction is valued at more than $1 billion.
Under the agreement, Trafigura will purchase 2,000 tonnes of contained nickel in mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) and 1,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate, which will be refined from 12,000 tonnes of black mass – marking a significant milestone for Western supply chains and the largest multi-metal commercial agreement between a recycled feedstock supplier and refiner.
Thanks to the partnership, Nth Cycle plans to establish new operations in South Carolina and the Netherlands to support production, installing its breakthrough “Oyster” system in existing facilities in both regions.
Nth Cycle’s team said site selection will be completed this year, with operations beginning in 2028.
What problem is Nth Cycle solving?
Nth Cycle is a critical minerals midstream refining company building the technology and infrastructure needed for Western supply chains. The industry bottleneck is that feedstock volumes do not align with the scale and economics of large, traditional refineries. Nth Cycle solves this constraint with a modular system, dramatically lowering capital intensity, deployment time, and emissions to convert industrial scrap, black mass, and primary feeds into intermediate and refined products within the nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth value chains.
“There is an urgent need to build capacity for black mass refining and develop more diversified and robust supply chains — particularly in the U.S., where securing domestic critical mineral processing capabilities is increasingly central to energy and industrial policy,” O’Connor said.
Traditional metal refineries assume the risk of large, fixed volumes, lengthy permitting timelines, and require billions in upfront investment and full capacity utilization to operate profitably.
In comparison, the Oyster’s modular, compact design deploys virtually anywhere, reduces build time from five or more years to under two, capital intensity by up to 70%, and produces competitive margins at 5-10x smaller scale.
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