European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s first visit to Canada earlier this year included only two stops.

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The main one, of course, was Ottawa, where she met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and addressed Parliament.

Von der Leyen’s second stop was a bit of surprise. Dignitaries of her stature would normally add Toronto or Montreal to their itineraries. Instead, Trudeau and von der Leyen motored two hours southwest to Kingston, Ont., Canada’s 24th largest city, according to Statistics Canada, with a population of about 173,000 people.

Kingston is home to the Royal Military College, and Russia’s war with Ukraine was an important theme of von der Leyen’s visit. So, the tiny city at the confluence of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario made for a suitable backdrop.

But there were soldiers in Ottawa. What the national capital lacked was a way to amplify how Canada could help with von der Leyen’s second priority: securing a supply of the minerals that will be needed for the energy transition.

That’s where Kingston came in. The city isn’t renowned for extracting minerals, but it’s becoming an unlikely hub for recycling them, which became apparent in early May when Swiss commodities giant Glencore PLC teamed with Kington’s Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. to help it build what could become Europe’s biggest battery recycling plant at an old lead refinery in Italy.

Geopolitical cameo

The EU estimated it will require 60 times its current amount of lithium to attain climate neutrality by 2050.

Von der Leyen and Trudeau spent part of March 7 visiting Li-Cycle’s new facilities, giving the upstart a brief cameo on the geopolitical stage.

Western democracies have spent much of the past year organizing to weaken China’s influence over the supply of the minerals and other inputs that go into the technology that will power the green economy.

China has long dominated the export of critical minerals, making up 98 per cent of Europe’s current supply, according to Statista. To curb reliance on Chinese imports, the EU and Canada are co-operating through the Canada-EU Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials, according to a joint press release issued after the visit. Von der Leyen and Trudeau also both committed to the Canada-EU Working Group on Energy Transition in March 2022, and for Canada to supply critical minerals to the EU in the medium-term.

Thirty-one critical minerals serve as “building blocks” for the green energy transition, used in products such as electric vehicle batteries and cellphones.

Li-Cycle handles old lithium-ion batteries and recovers scarce materials at a specialized processing facility, taking a more sustainable approach to sourcing key minerals.

The company said in an emailed statement that Kingston is attractive due to the availability of labour, opportunities for economic development and location. “These factors are crucial for a recycling company such as Li-Cycle, as they ensure efficient logistics and waste handling,” the company said.

Kingston’s proximity to the automobile makers in southern Ontario and other industrial production sites means it can easily tap a supply of lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap for recycling.

Li-Cycle’s “spoke” facilities process battery material to produce “black mass,” which contains valuable materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel. Black mass then is processed at Li-Cycle’s “hub” facilities to produce battery-grade products.

“Ontario and nearby regions have a significant concentration of automotive and electronic industries, which generate a substantial amount of lithium-ion batteries,” the company said.

Cleantech pioneers

Li-Cycle isn’t the only critical mineral recycling company in Kingston.

Homegrown Cyclic Materials Inc. is starting to make a name for itself, while Bedford, N.S.-based Ucore Rare Metals Inc. and Brussels-based Umicore SA have set up branch operations in recent years.

“Kingston has a unique ecosystem which can make it a nexus for critical mineral companies to operate,” Natural Resources Canada said in a statement.

The city was already a cleantech “hub,” said Shelley Hirstwood, director of business development at Invest Kingston. For almost 100 years, industry giants such as DuPont de Nemours Inc. and Koch Industries Inc.’s Invista have operated R&D facilities in the city.

“We’re completely unique in Canada,” Hirstwood said, citing that Kingston has the highest percentage of chemical processing experts per capita in Canada. Kingston’s expertise is a product of educational institutions such as Queen’s University, St. Lawrence College and Royal Ontario College.

“Metallurgy skills are sought out from around the world here,” Hirstwood said.

Behind Kingston’s cleantech companies are service providers such as Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. (KPM) and GreenCentre Canada, which have helped companies commercialize their products and processes for the past 20 years.

“Once you have an ecosystem of service providers … companies know they can come and get supported,” said KPM co-owner Boyd Davis.

KPM helps companies through technical planning, testing and commercialization. Most of their work is for multinational companies such as Rio Tinto Ltd. and Livent Corp. Ten to 20 per cent of their business is with startups, such as Cyclic Materials, through the KPM-Accelerate program or a direct contract.

The city has a lot to offer that's not readily apparent to people

Boyd Davis, co-owner, KPM

“The city has a lot to offer that’s not readily apparent to people,” said Davis. “But I think when you have critical mass, it becomes more apparent.”

Bigger than Li-Cycle

Similar to KPM, GreenCentre Canada’s team of chemists provides technical services to cleantech companies at the R&D stage. GreenCentre has a publicly funded arm — including federal support for projects — and a private fee-for-service business.

“The challenge early stage cleantech companies face is gaining access to technical talent, lab infrastructure, and expensive process and analytical capital equipment,” said Tim Clark, business operations manager at GreenCentre. “It’s prohibitively expensive.”

The concentration of talent at recycling companies such as Cyclic Materials is attracting venture capital investors. Earlier this year, Cyclic received $3.6 million in funding from SDTC Canada and raised US$27 million in Series A financing from a group of investors led by Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and BMWi Ventures (BiV).

“Being in Kingston will not limit you on funds,” said Cyclic chief executive Ahmad Ghahreman. “It will probably help you because of the history of chemical companies building success in Kingston.”

Cyclic Materials is the only company in North America recycling rare earth elements — a subset of critical minerals — directly from end-of-life products. The company processes magnets, producing the raw materials required for new magnet production, creating a circular, electric economy and reducing water usage.

Ghahreman said the success of mineral recycling companies encourages more startups to emerge in Kingston.

“When you build a company … you want to test your technology, you want to hire people to work on technology, you want to grow your business,” Ghahreman said. “All those are covered in Kingston, and the city supports you.”

‘Centre of the universe’

Kingston is far from the only university town that can boast a dense pool of talented workers. But fewer such towns are located in the middle of a corridor such as the one that exists between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, while also being close to the U.S. border.

Ghahreman calls Kingston the “centre of the universe” for critical mineral recycling companies.

“Access to the highway, you have water right next door, you have train tracks … if you want low-carbon shipping,” Ghahreman said. “All these really make Kingston an ideal location to start a business and grow.”

Belgium’s Umicore took note. In July, the company announced plans to build a $1.5-billion plant for active battery materials (CAM) and precursor materials (pCAM) in Loyalist Township, a 25-minute drive from Kingston. Construction is anticipated to begin in late 2023, according to Global News, and the plant could eventually employ 600 people.

Umicore declined to comment on the status of its project. At the time of the announcement, Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s economic development minister, said in a statement that Umicore’s investment “will turn Ontario into a North American leader in this high-value segment of the EV supply chain and further connect Northern Ontario’s mineral sector to EV manufacturing in the south.”

Unique in North America

Kingston is unique in North America because it has assembled a collection of companies that focus on process development and R&D support for critical mineral recycling, said Ahmad Hussein, adviser and government liaison at Ucore Rare Metals.

“Without this one key step that Kingston has been focusing on, the electric vehicle revolution wouldn’t really be a full supply chain in the country,” Hussein said.

Ucore focuses on the separation of light and heavy rare earth elements, a process that currently is dominated by Chinese companies. The company built a modern commercial demonstration plant in 2022 and aims to help Canada develop a supply chain independent of China.

Canada faces global competition as it embarks on an energy transition over the next 50 years, said Pat Ryan, CEO of Ucore. “China certainly has a clear-cut lead in all sorts of critical mineral processing,” he said.

The U.S. and its allies have made clear they intend to narrow that advantage, meaning Kingston could be on its way to becoming an important player in the economic fights to come.

The city’s cleantech leaders say they are ready. When operating in a smaller place like Kingston, the relationships between cleantech companies are collaborative, he said. That could lead to faster innovation and technological breakthroughs.

“Everyone kind of knows each other in the critical mineral space,” said Ryan. “It’s such a wide-open industry.”

Economic development program Invest Kingston helps local companies make contacts overseas, but Ryan said Kingston’s “mental horsepower” trumps whatever funding opportunities governments offer.

“The challenge is just to keep the momentum going with ongoing innovation,” he said.