Meerut Start-Up Circulogy Signs MoU for a ₹200 Crore Battery and Rare-Earth Recovery Refinery in Uttar Pradesh

India's search for secure supplies of critical minerals usually involves mining leases abroad and large government-backed processing parks. A deal signed in Uttar Pradesh this week takes a different route: getting those minerals back out of discarded batteries and magnets. Circulogy Cleantech, a deep-tech start-up based in Meerut, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Invest UP, the state's investment promotion agency, to set up a lithium-ion battery and rare-earth refinery in the city. The proposed investment is about ₹200 crore.

The MoU was announced on 21 October 2026.

What is planned

According to the state's announcement and subsequent reports:

• Investment: about ₹200 crore, to be deployed in phases.
• Capacity: at full build-out, the refinery is planned to process about 10,000 tonnes of material a year.
• Battery metals: it will recover lithium, cobalt and nickel from spent lithium-ion batteries.
• Rare earths: it will extract neodymium, dysprosium and terbium from end-of-life permanent magnets.
• Jobs: about 300 direct and 1,000 indirect jobs, the roughly 1,300 figure in most headlines.
• Role of the MoU: Invest UP will help the company with approvals and clearances, and with access to central and state incentives where the project qualifies.

Why these particular elements

The list of target metals shows where India's supply chain is weakest.

Lithium, cobalt and nickel are the main ingredients of the cathodes in most lithium-ion batteries. India has very little economically mineable supply of any of them. Officials at the Ministry of Mines said at an industry conclave this month that lithium and nickel are not available domestically in the quantities needed. Every electric scooter, car and grid battery built in India therefore depends on imported metal or imported cells.

Neodymium, dysprosium and terbium are the rare earths that make NdFeB permanent magnets, the strongest commercial magnets, used in EV traction motors, wind turbines, drones, missiles and many electronics. Dysprosium and terbium are added in small amounts so magnets keep working at high temperatures. China dominates rare-earth processing and magnet production, and its export controls on these materials in recent years have disrupted manufacturers worldwide, including Indian automakers.

Recycling as a mineral source

Battery and magnet recycling, sometimes called urban mining, turns waste into feedstock. A spent EV battery pack can contain more lithium, cobalt and nickel per tonne than many natural ores, and the material has already been mined, refined and imported once. Recovering it at home cuts import dependence and reduces the environmental damage from both mining and landfilling.

The policy background supports this. The Battery Waste Management Rules put extended-producer-responsibility obligations on battery makers and importers, which creates a regulated flow of used batteries to registered recyclers. On the magnet side, the Union Cabinet in November 2025 approved a ₹7,280 crore scheme to promote domestic manufacturing of rare-earth permanent magnets. Those plants will need a reliable supply of separated rare-earth oxides or metals, and recycled material could provide some of it. The government is also preparing a strategic reserve of critical minerals, including lithium and rare earths. Mines Secretary V L Kantha Rao said this month that the policy is likely to be finalised within weeks.

How the recovery works

Recycling a lithium-ion battery usually starts with discharging and shredding the cells into a mixed powder known as "black mass", which holds the valuable cathode metals. The most common way to recover them is hydrometallurgy: the black mass is dissolved in acid, and lithium, cobalt and nickel are separated out in sequence by precipitation and solvent extraction, ending in battery-grade salts that cathode makers can use again. The alternative, pyrometallurgy, smelts the material at high temperature. It is simpler but recovers less lithium.

Rare-earth magnet recycling follows a similar logic but is harder. Old magnets are demagnetised and crushed, then dissolved, after which neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium must be separated from one another. Because these elements are chemically almost identical, separation can take dozens of solvent-extraction stages. Mastering that step is where most of the value and know-how lies.

Why Meerut and Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has been trying to attract electronics and EV manufacturing to the National Capital Region and western UP. A refinery in Meerut would sit within reach of the large two-wheeler, three-wheeler and electronics clusters around Delhi, Noida and Greater Noida, which will generate a growing volume of battery and e-waste over the coming decade. Locating recycling near where waste is generated cuts logistics costs, an important factor in a business with thin margins.

Caveats

This is an MoU, not a commissioned plant. Reports do not give a construction timeline, a confirmed site, the technology to be used (hydrometallurgical, pyrometallurgical or a mix), or whether the ₹200 crore figure is firm. Separating individual rare-earth elements is chemically difficult and needs long chains of solvent-extraction stages, and few companies outside China do it commercially at scale. Battery recycling economics also swing with metal prices: when lithium prices fall, as they did sharply in 2023–24, recycling margins shrink. State investment MoUs often take years to turn into working plants.

Coverage of the announcement also varies on the company's name. One outlet spells it "Circulology", while most reports use "Circulogy".

Why it matters

India has set out ambitious targets for EVs, grid storage and domestic magnet manufacturing, and all of them depend on raw materials the country does not mine in quantity. Recycling will not cover the gap alone, but it is one of the few sources of supply that India controls. If Circulogy builds its Meerut refinery, and especially if it can produce separated rare-earth products at commercial quality, it would be a small but real addition to India's capacity in the most strategically sensitive part of the clean-energy supply chain.

Sources

• https://www.freepressjournal.in/uttar-pradesh/ups-meerut-to-get-200-crore-lithium-ion-battery-rare-earth-refinery-project-expected-to-create-1300-jobs
• https://indianpsu.com/meerut-critical-minerals-rare-earth-refinery-200-crore/
• https://mumbaitribune.in/2026/10/22/200-crore-lithium-ion-battery-and-rare-earth-refinery-to-be-established-in-meerut/
• https://english.revoi.in/%E2%82%B9200-crore-lithium-ion-battery-and-rare-earth-refinery-to-be-built-in-meerut/
• https://www.aryanage.com/article/48361/6ad870c4dc003
• https://www.aninews.in/news/business/india-looks-to-scale-up-rare-earth-processing-tech-build-domestic-critical-minerals-ecosystem-joint-secy-mines-ministry20261009162753/
• https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/business/india-to-establish-lithium-and-rare-earths-reserve-for-industries/tldr