One Dead, 20 Injured in Chinese Battery Recycling Fire

Fire at a battery recycling plant in southern China Thursday evening left one worker dead and 20 others injured, local media reports.

Shortly after 6 p.m. fire broke out in a waste disposal unit at Brunp Recycling Technology in Ningxiang, Hunan province. At peak performance, the plant can produce 15,000 tons of precursor materials by recovering lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt from used batteries, Recycling International reports.

A spokesperson for the company stated that the fire will have only limited impact on operations at the plant.

Area fire departments mustered more than 185 emergency personnel to respond to the disaster.

Aluminum foil discarded in the waste disposal unit is under investigation as the possible ignition source for the fire.