The European Commission has awarded EUR 2.9 billion in funding to 61 innovative low-emission technology projects from the Innovation Fund. Among them, the Polvolt investment in Zawiercie, implemented by Elemental Battery Metals, a company belonging to the Elemental Group, will receive a grant worth EUR 150.5 million. Polvolt is the largest strategic metals production hub on the Old Continent, one of the key undertakings for the raw material security of the European Union and Poland in the field of critical metals production.
– All formalities regarding obtaining the European Commission grant from the Innovation Fund should be completed in the first quarter of 2026 – specifies Maciej Dudzic, President of the Management Board of Elemental Battery Metals. – I am proud that we received this grant offer from the EC. This is another measurable expression of trust and recognition for a Polish company. I would like to remind that in September this year, we signed an agreement with the Ministry of Development and Technology to obtain a grant in the amount of PLN 1.038 billion under the EU TCTF program (Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework) – adds President Dudzic.
Polvolt worth a billion dollars
A total of approximately USD 1 billion will be invested in Zawiercie over the next 7 years. Polvolt is the largest investment made by a private entity in the strategic sector in Poland. The innovation of the project lies in combining environmentally friendly metallurgical processes with the recycling of so-called black mass, derived from used lithium-ion batteries and production waste. The investment proceeds in two stages. The first stage of the Elemental Group’s investment program was the opening in June 2024 of the Elemental Strategic Metals facility in Zawiercie.
In Zawiercie there is a lithium-ion battery recycling plant (including from electric cars, energy storage systems, drones, smartphones and laptops) and a plant producing platinum group metals from used catalysts. ESM recovers as many as eight of the 34 raw materials that the European Commission has recognized as critical. These are cobalt, lithium, manganese, copper and nickel, as well as platinum group metals: palladium, platinum and rhodium. It is worth emphasizing that the Elemental Group has a 15% share in the global recovery of platinum group metals.
The second stage of the investment program is the Polvolt project itself, i.e. the production of critical raw materials from the so-called black mass, a mixture of battery metals already obtained. From 2031, Elemental Battery Metals will produce gold, silver, copper and battery metals, i.e. cobalt, lithium, nickel and manganese, on an industrial scale.
– It is worth emphasizing that the potential of the Elemental Strategic Metals plant, which has been operating since last year, is 12,000 tons of batteries and 6,000 tons of catalysts recycled annually. As the Elemental Group, we also process globally over 40,000 tons of PCB boards and over 110,000 tons of electronic waste per year – summarizes Paweł Jarski, President of the Management Board of the Elemental Group. – Ultimately, metals used in strategic industries, including the energy, defense, automotive and telecommunications industries, will be recovered in Zawiercie – adds President Jarski.
EU focuses on extraction and recovery of critical raw materials
Innovation Fund is one of the largest global financing programs for low-emission technologies, managed by the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) and the CINEA agency.
The Fund is financed from the revenue from EU CO2 emission allowance auctions and – depending on their price – can reach a value of up to EUR 10 billion. The program is intended to support investments that realistically accelerate the decarbonization of the European Union economy.
The extraction and recovery of critical raw materials – including lithium, nickel and copper – is today a pillar of Europe’s economic security. The European Union adopted the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) in 2024, which by 2030 assumes at least 10% of consumption from extraction in the EU, 40% from processing and 25% from recycling, as well as reducing dependence on individual suppliers. In March 2025, the European Commission indicated 47 strategic investments with a total value of EUR 22.5 billion, among which Polvolt in Zawiercie was included.