Worley Wins Engineering Contract for Missouri Cobalt Refinery Project

Australian engineering company Worley has secured an engineering services contract from United States Strategic Metals for a new processing facility in Missouri. The project is focused on bolstering the domestic U.S. supply chain for critical minerals used in batteries and other advanced technologies.

Project Scope

Worley will provide engineering services and procurement support for the development of a multi-metallic processing hub. According to the announcement, the company will be part of an integrated project management team responsible for overseeing the project's construction.

The planned facility includes two key components:

• A cobalt refinery for processing the critical battery metal.
• A black mass recycling process line, designed to recover valuable materials from spent batteries.

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Strategic Importance for Battery Materials

This project represents a move to increase domestic processing capabilities for materials essential to the energy transition. Cobalt is a key component in the cathodes of many lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems.

Black mass recycling is an increasingly crucial part of the battery supply chain, allowing for the recovery and reuse of high-value metals like cobalt, lithium, and nickel from end-of-life batteries. Establishing such facilities in the U.S. is seen as a strategic step to reduce reliance on foreign processing and enhance resource security.