Orano - Annual Activity Report 2025 46 2 SITUATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE COMPANY AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES DURING THE PAST FINANCIAL YEAR The group’s businesses The investigations and initial results, as well as market trends favorable to the recycling of electric vehicle batteries, led to the group’s decision to move to pre-industrial scale in mid-2021, with the installation of two industrial pretreatment and hydrometallurgy pilots at the Centre d’innovation de métallurgie extractive (CIME) at Orano’s site in Bessines-sur-Gartempe (France). The aim is to validate the robustness of the process with a view to industrial scale-up, with the support of industrial partners in the battery ecosystem. The Batteries program changed in the first quarter of 2022, with initial discussions with XTC New Energy, a subsidiary of XTC, a leader in the manufacture of cathode active materials (CAM) and their precursors (PCAM). After a memorandum of understanding in February 2022, joint venture (JV) agreements were signed with XTC New Energy on May 16, 2023, with a view to creating a CAM JV and a PCAM JV. On December 9, 2024, a new milestone was reached with the creation of two joint ventures producing battery components for electric vehicles (CAM and PCAM). The creation of these two joint ventures within the project, now called Neomat, marks the desire of the two partners to join forces to develop an integrated and efficient industrial platform, in France in Dunkerque. The joint ventures called Neomat CAM and Neomat PCAM will carry out the construction projects of the two plants. Neomat CAM, the cathode active materials manufacturing plant, and Neomat PCAM, the cathode active materials precursor production plant, are expected to be deployed on the site allocated by the Grand port maritime de Dunkerque (GPMD), in the municipalities of Gravelines and Loon-Plage. The Neomat project as a whole was subject to several stages of public participation. A preliminary consultation took place from February 5 to March 31, 2024, under the aegis of three guarantors appointed by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP). It was followed by eight months of ongoing consultation, in parallel with the finalization of the studies and the submission of regulatory files, to complete or clarify the elements presented in prior consultation. The public inquiry was the last step in the regulatory process of dialogue with the public. It was held from July 7 to August 8, 2025. The public inquiry into the project for the first CAM plant resulted in authorizations from the Nord prefecture at the end of September 2025 and the signing of the building permits for the first CAM plant by the municipalities of Gravelines and Loon-Plage. The choice of site locations focused on Dunkerque (Nord, Hauts-de-France), which will also be the site of the Orano hydrometallurgical recycling plant. These three plant projects (PCAM, CAM, recycling) will contribute to the creation of a complete and sustainable value chain for electric batteries. At full capacity, they will be able to produce battery materials for more than one million electric vehicles per year. In addition, on March 25, 2025, the European Commission announced the list of 47 projects selected as a “strategic project” intended to ensure a safe and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The Orano hydrometallurgy project is one of them. Orano’s hydrometallurgy project to recycle battery components for electric vehicles in France has been declared a strategic project by the European Commission under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), alongside 46 other European industrial projects. Six projects involve battery recycling. Orano is the only hydrometallurgy project recognized as such in France. The CRMA aims to secure critical materials supply chains in order to strengthen European sovereignty. Orano’s action is in line with this approach. In a market context that has not yet stabilized, the Batteries program is continuing its discussions with ecosystem players to establish industrial and commercial partnerships that guarantee the robustness of the model. Orano and its partner XTC New Energy aim to meet the conditions to start construction of the first CAM plant in the 1st half of 2026. BATTERIES RECYCLING PROCESS Source: Orano Collection and dismantling of end-of-life batteries Module treatment Material recovery and separation Precursors of cathode active materials (P-CAM) manufacture Manufacture of cathode active materials (CAM) Manufacture of new battery components Batteries (scrap and/or end-of-life batteries) Lithium Cobalt Nickel Manganese Graphite
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