Good day. My name is Leo, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter 2022 Li-Cycle Holdings earnings call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you should need operator assistance, please press star zero. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Nahla Azmy, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Leo. Good morning and thank you everyone for joining us today for Li-Cycle's review of our first quarter 2022 results ended January 31. We will start today with formal remarks from Tim Johnston, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, Ajay Kochhar, Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Debbie Simpson, Chief Financial Officer. We will then follow with a Q&A session. Ahead of this call, Li-Cycle issued a press release and a presentation which can be found on the investor relations section of our website at investors.licycle.com. On this call, management will be making statements based on current expectations, plans, estimates, and assumptions which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements.
If any of our key assumptions are incorrect, including because of factors discussed in today's press release, during this conference call and in our past reports and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission in Canada. These documents can be found on our website at investors.li-cycle.com. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, made during this call or from time to time to reflect new information, future events or otherwise, except as required. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call to Tim.
Thank you, Nahla, and good morning. We're excited to provide you with the review of our first quarter results and an update on the continued progress we have made on our Spoke & Hub network. I will begin the call by covering key operational and commercial developments. Debbie will then review our financial performance and balance sheet position. We will also discuss our competitive positioning and economic value proposition. Beginning on slide three, the recent developments in three key areas. I'll cover these briefly and then in more detail later. On the commercial front, we continue to grow our battery supply customer base, recently adding two new emerging electric vehicle manufacturers. In addition, we are making progress on the strategic multi-year commercial partnership with LG Chem and LG Energy Solution. We anticipate the completion of these agreements by the end of April.
On operational level, we made significant progress on our Spoke & Hub network. We received the air permit approval for our Rochester Hub project from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which is a critical path item for proceeding with the next phase of construction. This permitting milestone was received with strong support from local and state authorities, a validation of the net positive environmental footprint and economic value we bring to the community. This allows us to push ahead for targeted commissioning in 2023. Also, we are nearing completion of the Arizona Spoke in line with our scheduled timing for early 2022. The Arizona Spoke is a first of a kind on multiple fronts, which I'll discuss in more detail shortly. On the financial front, the Ontario and New York Spokes delivered higher year-on-year black mass production, which resulted in higher revenues.
We also continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with more than $550 million in cash. This will be augmented further by the LG investment that we expect to close in late April. Turning to slide 4, let me take you through the status of our Spoke build-outs and black mass production targets in more detail. We have several key competitive advantages that are integral to our strategy. With our patent-protected modular Spoke Technology built in our Spoke fabrication facilities, we have the capability to rapidly deploy new plants in lockstep with our customers' accelerating growth. The small physical and environmental footprint of these plants allow us to efficiently co-locate with partners like Ultium to provide on-site recycling solutions or support multiple customers through regional merchant facilities.
The Arizona Spoke, nearing completion, represents the next level in our innovation in Spoke design with regards to scale and process capability. This template was developed in response to growing demand. When operational, it will have an annual processing capacity of 10,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries. The plant is the first of its kind, capable of processing full electric vehicle battery packs, making it safer and more labor efficient. Next in line is the Alabama Spoke, which is the same design as the Arizona Spoke and is due to be online in our third quarter of 2022. When both Arizona and Alabama Spokes are operational, we will have a total processing capacity of 30,000 tons, up from 10,000 tons. We continue to target black mass production for the fiscal year in the range of 6.5-7.5 thousand tons.
As we noted in our previous quarterly call, this step-up will be evident in the second half of this fiscal year, driven by the expected timing of these two new facilities. Turn to slide 5 for an update on the Rochester Hub. As I commented earlier, we're excited to share with you that we have obtained the air permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. This was a significant milestone, allowing us to move to the next phase of construction with the installation of permanent infrastructure. The issuance of the air permit follows the approval by the Town of Greece of a negative declaration of environmental impact under the State Environmental Quality Review Act in November 2021. Achieved in 14 months, both of these approvals endorse the sustainable nature of our operation and the positive environmental approach to our process.
The Hub is the first major facility of its kind in North America and demonstrates the substantial community and regulatory support for our environmentally advanced Spoke and Hub technologies. We view this support as a significant competitive advantage as we continue to grow our network. I would also note that the patented protected Hub process utilizes standard equipment. It is based on proven technology, validated through our pilot facility and incorporated into the final design of the Rochester Hub. We previously shared that Hatch is our engineering and procurement contractor for the Rochester Hub. Recently, we have selected MasTec Industrial as our general contractor for the project. We are finalizing contract details for completion in the coming months. As you may also recall, we have firmed up timing and pricing for the majority of the long lead equipment.
We are well underway with procuring this equipment, which will continue into the next quarter. Finally, we have continued to make progress with the addition of commercial partners, including the partnership with LG Chem and LG Energy Solution. In December 2021, we announced that LG Energy Solution and Li-Cycle intend to participate on recycling nickel-bearing battery scrap. In addition, Li-Cycle will supply LG with a total of 20,000 tons of nickel from the Rochester Hub over a 10-year period beginning in 2023. In conjunction with completing these agreements, LG intends to make a combined $50 million equity investment in Li-Cycle at a price of $11.32 per share. We expect to conclude these commercial agreements by the end of April. That concludes my formal remarks. Debbie will now review our financials.
Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. If I could turn your attention to slide 6, let me first review results for the first quarter ended January 31, 2022. Revenue for the quarter increased by 277% to $3.8 million compared to $1 million in the same quarter last year, driven by increases in product sales and market prices. The increase in volume is primarily related to the quantities of batteries and battery scrap processed at the New York Spoke. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $16.9 million compared to $3.7 million for the same period last year. This was largely driven by higher staffing and network development costs related to the growth and expansion of the business, particularly in North America.
Higher personnel costs are for operational, corporate, commercial, and engineering resources, as well as professional fees and administrative costs in support of a public company, which we did not have in the comparative period. I would note that while year-over-year revenue is significantly higher, our revenue for the quarter is lower than the previous quarter. This decrease is largely timing related due to a delay in scheduled maintenance at one of our production facilities, driving a shift of black mass sales from the first quarter into the second quarter. We would expect that the remaining quarters of fiscal 2022 will show sequentially increasing black mass production with corresponding revenue increases. This ongoing upward trend is supported by the shift in order fulfillment into the second quarter and increasing production from the Arizona and Alabama Spokes in the second half of the fiscal year.
Moving to slide 7, I'll cover a few highlights on the balance sheet. Li-Cycle ended the first quarter with more than $550 million of cash on hand. This strong balance sheet position is expected to fund a large majority of the capital needed for the Rochester Hub, the 5 Spokes in development, and the operating needs of the business through 2023. To further strengthen our balance sheet, optimize our capital structure, and provide future flexibility, we are evaluating multiple capital sources that are available to us. These include debt-based financing alternatives such as traditional corporate debt, project financing, government-related funding, and funding from potential strategic partners. With that, let me turn this over to Ajay.
Thanks, Debbie. I'll cover our business model and value proposition and close with future key milestones. I'll begin with slide 8, with the total addressable market or TAM for battery recycling material in our strategic focus regions. It is projected that by 2025, the North American TAM will grow to be more than 420,000 tons of lithium-ion battery equivalent, and Europe will be more than 300,000 tons of lithium-ion battery equivalent available for recycling. This is largely attributable to surging demand for electric vehicles, which is driving incumbent and emerging electric vehicle OEMs to accelerate their demand for battery materials with increased gigafactory investments. More recently, we have seen a supply and demand imbalance for these critical battery materials, driving pricing to all-time highs, particularly for nickel and lithium.
Turning to slide 9, I'll review how Li-Cycle's Spoke & Hub network fits in the battery material supply chain. First, in North America, with our announced pipeline of projects in operation and development, we are leading the market in terms of lithium-ion battery recycling capacity. When our Rochester hub is operational, we expect to also be a leading domestic source of battery materials. Let me explain how. As we depict here, mining is the primary source of battery materials to supply cell and auto OEMs. Most of this mine supply is resourced from outside of North America and Europe. We will collect end-of-life batteries and manufacturing scrap from a variety of sources within these markets. Then we will recycle these materials through our spokes to convert them into black mass, an intermediate material which contains valuable metal content.
From there, we will process the black mass produced in our spokes to our hub, resulting in finished battery-grade specialty materials that can be sold as a domestic source of supply and an alternative to mined sources. Hence, the core of our strategy. Our spoke and hub network is designed to be a key domestic source of critical battery materials to the supply chain loop. We call this the urban mining solution. In addition to serving as a domestic supplier, we have another key advantage relative to primary sources, and that is the expedited timing at which we can supply the market. Our speed to market is a function of two key strengths. One, the net positive environmental impact of our processing technology, and two, our innovative and scalable construction approach. This reduces time to market by at least half for sustainable materials relative to mining. Turning to slide 10.
Simply put, our strategic and competitive advantage is twofold. First, we've patented and proven our Spoke and Hub technologies. Second, we've rapidly expanded our commercial network with leading global battery participants. On the technology front, we believe that our IP-protected processing technology for both the Spokes and Hub is disrupting conventional primary sources such as mining and pyrometallurgy processing. On the commercial front, we continue to expand and diversify our portfolio of customers, both with respect to the battery material intake and offtake. On the intake side, we continue to grow our customer supply sources while remaining agnostic to battery chemistries and recycling all types of lithium-ion batteries. We have flexibility to process different types of battery materials at the same time. On the offtake side, 100% of the production from our Spokes and specialty battery materials from our future Hub are committed with Traxys.
As such, we've mitigated our exposure on end product sales. Over time, as our hub comes online, we will look to direct our black mass production from the spokes directly to our hub. Turning to slides 11 and 12 for our economics and value proposition. First, slide 11 depicts our integrated spoke and hub model, which is uniquely positioned to unlock significant economic value from battery materials collected from various suppliers. Let me describe the steps and how we capture increasing value. We receive input battery materials from suppliers, which are either processed by us for a fee or purchased at a discount to metal value due to the form of the materials. Our spokes process these battery materials into black mass, an intermediate material which is sold at index pricing based on its nickel and cobalt content.
This thereby earns a margin spread relative to the input cost of battery materials. Once the Rochester Hub is operational, we will process its black mass into refined specialty materials, including lithium carbonate, nickel sulfate, and cobalt sulfate. These specialty materials can be sold at a premium to reference metal index pricing due to the battery-grade form. For reference, in the first quarter, we achieved an average black mass selling price of approximately $3,800 a ton. Once the Hub is operational, we would expect to realize approximately 3-5 times more value on a per ton of black mass basis. Through the sale of these specialty materials as compared to selling black mass to third parties. Slide 12 provides more specifics on the Rochester Hub projected volumes and pricing dynamics.
Once operational, the Rochester Hub will not only play a significant role in providing a domestic source of critical battery materials, it will also be a meaningful value driver for Li-Cycle and our shareholders. I'll elaborate on that point. Pricing for our key battery material end products will be driven by the hub production volumes and an agreed upon premium to metal index pricing with some flexibility to capture upside in favorable supply and demand dynamics. As you can see on the slide, we provide our expected annual production output equivalencies for nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate, and lithium carbonate. For further reference in terms of pricing mechanics for our battery grade end products, we provide the metal volume equivalencies for nickel and cobalt based on the relevant chemical equivalencies. Below this on the slide, we show recent historical market pricing for nickel, cobalt, and lithium carbonate.
In the cases of nickel and cobalt, while we track the LME price as an underlying reference point, we typically expect to earn premium pricing to this based on the battery grade form of these end products. In summary, not only do we earn a premium spread, but if underlying reference prices are increasing, we retain commercial flexibility to capture some of the upside in the underlying index pricing. Moving to slide 13. This summarizes our current pipeline of Spoke and Hub projects and the expected timeline through 2023. Earlier, we covered the two Spokes in operation and the Arizona and Allendale Spokes coming online in 2022. We have three additional Spokes in development. One is the Ohio Spoke, which will be co-located with Ultium Cells battery mega factory.
The Ohio Spoke will have an annual processing capacity of approximately 15,000 tons and is expected to be operational in early 2023. Two is our Norway Spoke, which is an initial launch into Europe. This is planned to be through a joint venture with ECO STOR, a leading second life storage business, and Morrow Batteries, which is building a battery cell manufacturing plant with an annual capacity more than 40 GWh. The Norway Spoke is expected to come online by early 2023 with an annual processing capacity of 10,000 tons. Three is our Spoke in Germany with an annual processing capacity of 10,000 tons, which we expect to come online in 2023. Finally, as we reviewed in detail earlier, we are on track for commissioning our Rochester Hub in 2023.
Bringing this all together, by the end of 2023, we expect to have a total of 65,000 tons of lithium-ion battery spoke processing capacity between North America and Europe, with the first hub in North America capable of processing 35,000 tons of black mass annually. On the capital cost side, we estimate up to $10 million for the development of each of these remaining spoke projects and approximately $485 million for the Rochester Hub, with an accuracy of ±15%. As Debbie noted, our current cash balance can fund the large majority of this pipeline of projects and the operating needs of the business for approximately the next 2 years. We are proactively evaluating a number of financing alternatives that are available to us to further strengthen our balance sheet position, optimize our capital structure, and provide future flexibility.
Over the course of 2022 and 2023, we will continue to provide updates on the developments of our portfolio. Turning to slide 14. I'd like to reiterate our key management objectives for 2022. Health, safety, environment, and quality remain core to Li-Cycle's culture, values, and operating disciplines. We remain focused on delivering on our black mass production target of 6,500-7,500 tons in fiscal year 2022. We will continue our execution on the Rochester Hub project for commissioning in 2023. Finally, we expect to maintain and enhance our balance sheet position with financial flexibility for future growth and pursue a disciplined approach to managing operating expenses as we build our path to future profitability. This concludes our formal remarks, and we look forward to your questions.
At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, you may do so by pressing the pound key. We remind you to please pick up your handset for optimal sound quality. We'll take our first question from P.J. Juvekar of Citi.
Yes, good morning, Tim and Ajay.
Good morning, P.J.
You know, volatility in lithium nickel prices, so the big spikes we saw, that's generally not good for any business. What happened to black mass pricing, let's say in last six months, but really, you know, interested in last quarter, how did the black mass pricing change? Have you seen any changes in the battery cost that you procure?
Yeah. Hey, Vijay and Sajay, and I can start, and then soon Debbie can add on as needed. Yeah, look, let me start with the black mass, and I'll work my way backwards to the feed. In short, yes, actually, our black mass pricing is based on a formula, and it tracks with the index of nickel and cobalt. That is the case as time goes on, that we are going to benefit from potential upside. The flip side of that is on the input side is also the protection to the downside. In terms of the feed, we from a commercial perspective at a high level, and we're not always paying for battery materials, but when we do, it's based on a fixed and a variable discount.
that again, allows us to benefit from the upside while protecting the downside.
Okay. Thank you for that. In the future, which of your spokes will feed the Rochester hub? Because some of these spokes are quite far. Like for example, Arizona spoke from Rochester hub. Can you just talk about how do you see that integration when all this is built out?
Yeah, no problem, P.J. Juvekar. I can answer that one. From our perspective, it is a true network effect, so we expect that all of our Spoke facilities will feed our Rochester hub. How we look at this is that when you compare the cost of battery materials versus the cost or price of black mass, you end up having a much higher value product as being black mass that's easier and safer and therefore lower cost to transport. One of the key benefits of the business model is we're able to turn those, you know, potentially volatile materials on the inbound side into an easily transportable.
You know, as you can see in the deck, you know, we average price at around $3,500 per ton for the quarter, a high-value intermediary product that is, you know, concentrates that you've seen around the world, directly to the facility in Rochester. One thing I will add is that one of the reasons why we chose the Rochester location is because of its serviceability by infrastructure. We do have direct rail and road transport with just coming off the highway there in Rochester, which does allow us to optimize our logistics costs. Just one clarification, P.J. Juvekar, apologies, I said $3,500 for the quarter. It was actually $3,800 per ton of black mass for the quarter.
The same sentiment applies. It's a high value, easily transportable intermediary.
Great. Thank you. I'll pass along.
Thank you, Vijay. Thank you.
We'll take our next question from Brian Dobson of Chardan Capital Markets.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks so much for taking my question. You mentioned that there was a maintenance issue at one of your spokes that shifted some of the sale of black mass from one Q into two Q. Can you give us a little bit more color on that? What was the revenue impact?
Yeah, no problem. I can address that one, Brian. The issue there was the availability of spares. We do have consumables that we use through the process, and unfortunately, we didn't have it available when we needed it, which meant that we were forced to run significantly lower processing capacity through the Kingston operation for almost a month. You can think of it as effectively, you know, you're almost losing a month of true process capacity through the Kingston operation.
We've addressed that on our side in terms of, you know, we understand that the world has changed, I think, forever in how we manage spares and inventory spares. We've been able to address that so that we won't have this issue again. It was definitely a significant impact that we had to deal with in the last quarter.
I would just add to that, Ajay, here, as you think about on a go-forward basis, and I understand obviously where, you know, folks are trying to think is as we talk about the incremental subsequent spokes, you know, how does this translate and what does this mean for the go forward? What I would just say though, really simply put, is as you think about this year, I would just encourage you to have listened to Debbie's remarks that, you know, we're talking about the Alabama and Arizona spokes coming in primarily in terms of ramp up in the back half of the year. Just as you think about how to model this year in terms of the guidance we've stuck with, obviously in terms of the black mass production.
Okay, excellent. That's very helpful. Thanks very much. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
We'll take our next question from George Gianarikas of Baird.
Hi, good morning, Tim and Ajay, and welcome, Debbie. Nice to have you aboard.
Hi, George.
Hey, George.
Just a very quick question, first on your permitting. You mentioned that you were issued a negative declaration of environmental impact from the town of Greece, New York. Sounds like a wonderful place. If you could just share what that was like and what exactly they went through. Did they go through your future operations and determine the negative declaration, or was it just based on the build out of the hub?
No, that's a great question. The negative declaration is a process, and we say it was issued by the Town of Greece because they were the municipality or the party that was ultimately responsible for facilitating the program. It did have inputs and review by well over a dozen different agencies within the state and broader. What they're looking at is the environmental, community, economic impact of not just the construction, but the long-term operation of the facility. They're looking at, you know, what sort of levels of air emissions, water emissions. They're also looking at, you know, what will happen, you know, during construction from storm water runoff, et cetera. I mean, it could go on.
It's a very detailed process, and having done that and gone through that and have all the agencies reviewed it and come back and said that they don't foresee that we will have a meaningful impact in getting that negative declaration, it was a major milestone. That allowed us to move forward with our air permit application, which was a process that's administered by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Ultimately, we were able to receive that permit earlier this month.
Well, congratulations. One more. Just as we approach the hub in 2023, can you share kind of broadly, you know, additional learnings, additional insights, in terms of its future operation?
sorry, I'm not sure I quite understand the question. Can you please repeat that?
Sure. Meaning that, you know, you've had another three months now to plan out the hub, and I'm curious as to any additional insights, you know, any operational changes you've had to make or how comfortable you feel with getting that up and running by 2023.
Yeah. I mean, we continue to remain on track for commissioning in 2023. We haven't learned of anything that materially changes our view in that regard. The process is essentially locked down. We're in what we call the detailed design engineering and procurement phase. We've started basic earthworks on site, and that's continuing to move forward. From that perspective, no, nothing that would change our view.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
We'll take our next question from Robin Fiedler of BMO.
Hey, good morning, everyone, and congrats on the hub permit. With volumes ramping and the, you know, leverage benefit from higher commodity prices offset by, you know, presumably costs continuing to grow as well, you know, with all those puts and takes, like, do you expect the quarterly cash burn to get better or worse across the year?
Yeah. I'd like to maybe start and then Debbie can add on that. Thanks for the question, Robin. I think at a high level, as you folks think about going forward, of course, we're growing and we're bringing on additional assets. That said, we're also scaling headcount to support the network. You know, we have a good base today that's gonna be also benefiting our future build out as well. There will also be, of course, the revenue benefit from those incremental assets, of course, that we shouldn't forget. Maybe Debbie wants to add to that.
No, I would just echo what RJ said. You've seen our Q1. I think the way I would characterize it is you could probably expect a modest increase in our SG&A expenses as we continue to build out. Then, as you said, we're gonna have some revenue streams come on as we continue to build out.
Okay, thanks. Just questioning on, I guess, spoke operating rates. Excuse me. Like, what is the ability for you to run a spoke maybe above its capacity for a specific quarter? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, with the Kingston plant, you know, running below for this last quarter with the maintenance, can you catch up, so to speak? Because with your maintenance or your black mass production, I would have thought that you would need Rochester and Kingston running pretty close to 100% capacity. Maybe the offset is just Arizona, Alabama, you know, getting having a stronger ramp than I would've thought. Maybe you can just unpack a little bit more on what gives you conviction you can still meet this full year volume guidance.
No problem. I'm gonna answer your question in reverse. I'll start with Arizona and Alabama. They, you know, as RJ and Debbie were stating earlier, that we do expect the production to be heavily weighted towards the back end of the year. They will make a significant change in terms of the operational capacity of the network of spoke facilities here in North America. One of the other benefits that we don't often get a chance to talk about, so I'll take the opportunity now, is that, you know, our spokes will also. This is the first time that we've been able to roll out our full pack processing capacity.
What that basically means is that we'll now have an assortment of spokes with capabilities that are, you know, stronger in regards to larger format batteries, and we'll be able to modify how we feed these plants to be optimized for the style of plant that it is. That's a very technical answer, Robin, but the intent is just to say that as we increase the number of spoke facilities, our optimization of these assets, our existing assets will also improve. I do believe that, you know, as we state, we're still targeting the same annual production of black mass. It's just going to be heavily weighted towards the back end of the year. Despite having a lower than expected production quarter, we haven't changed our guidance for a full year.
Maybe just thinking a follow-up on that. Like, is the output from Kingston? Is there like lost production there? Or, like, is part of what you're doing like shifting some of your feedstock to the other plants to maintain like that same volume? Like, was there output destruction at Kingston for the full year, basically?
I think I understand where you're coming from, and correct me if I'm wrong, but for Kingston, as we bring on the other facilities, we will optimize what we send to what plant. Keeping in mind, you know, Kingston today processes material from all over North America, not just from, let's say, the Ontario Basin. What we will do is we will prioritize sending larger format material, for example, to Arizona and Alabama, as those facilities are better situated to handle it at a higher throughput rate than what Kingston is. You know, we also talked about scheduled maintenance.
It's the benefits of that is, you know, increased uptime, less maintenance, 'cause we're actually using the facility for what it was truly designed to do rather than pushing it to process larger format material.
That's helpful. Thank you.
No problem, Robin.
We'll take our next question from Dan Ives of Wedbush.
Yeah, thanks. Just with rising costs across the board, and obviously in, you know, with the build-out in Rochester, can you just talk about from a guidance perspective or just internally how you're thinking about the variables there? Like, what's the major thing that could maybe go wrong or go right when you're thinking about sort of forecasting the cost structure over the next six to 12 months?
Yeah, not a problem. Good morning. When it comes to the hub in Rochester, one of the things that we've been very conscious of is the higher volatility in pricing. We refer to long lead procurement, and we've been very aggressive in targeting long lead procurement packages early on. On the back of the DFS, we've placed the majority of our long lead packages, which has locked in the pricing for those. You know, of course, the world continues to be volatile, so I'm not going to say that it's completely not. Those have been largely locked in.
At this time, we're continuing to move forward with construction, with Hatch and MasTec, and we still feel that the project is tracking within that ±15% range that we targeted on the back of the DFS.
Great. Thanks. Great job with the build-out.
Thank you, sir.
We'll take our next question from Evan Silverberg of Morgan Stanley.
Good morning, guys. Evan Silverberg on for Adam Jonas. Just combining a few different thoughts you guys have thrown out there. You said, I believe, Ajay, you said that there's enough cash on hand to fund the business for close to two years. I mean, if we're looking at the big chunk of cash here is going to be the hub. I mean, is that really gonna? Are we thinking operationally that's more the back half of 2023 versus the front half of 2023, if you really think you could keep that cash balance for close to two years?
Yeah, maybe I'll start, and then I'll turn over to Debbie. Yeah, I think broadly you're thinking, you know, about the timeframe in the right way. Of course, there's a lot of puts and takes, right? There's capital, there's our OpEx component, and there's also the revenue benefit from the additional spokes as we bring them online and also selling black mass. Of course, given the broader environment, which is favorable for us from a supply-demand perspective, for those materials and their associated material pricing that factors into black mass, that's of course favorable. There's a few puts and takes, I would say. Debbie can add to that.
Yeah. Evan, hi. Good morning. If you look at the combination of, you know, where we sit in terms of Q1, if you're looking to sort of figure out a little bit of math, if you think of that pretty much as a good indication, bearing in mind my comments earlier, right, with regards to our run rate, I think that's really helpful. If you look at our needs on the capital side, there's a hub construction, and we've got the five spokes on new development for the next couple of years. When you put all of that together, I think what you get to is you've got the large majority covered by our current situation.
We look at it as a sort of timeframe that we can manage, where there's a number of sources available to us that we can execute on. When we're looking both short, medium, and long term, we tend to chunk this up a little bit. We're sort of approaching it from a basis of as we execute additional projects, we've got opportunity to execute additional layers of financing. What we're trying to do is match our balance sheet on financing alternatives that are open to us as we grow the business in a modular way, in the same way that we're approaching the growth of the business. Kind of see that whole financing plan hand in hand with the approach to building out the growth of the business.
Thank you for that. One follow-up, if you don't mind. While not perfect math here, if we were to take the black mass produced in the first quarter and kind of imply what the lithium ion battery equivalent into the into the spokes was via pricing as the, you know, third variable, you kinda get like a low 70% conversion rate, which would make sense given that, you know, right now a lot of the input is feed scrap. As we're kinda looking at the back half of the year and you're looking at your supply, do we think that conversion rate kind of holds? Or, you know, do you see maybe larger format items coming into the spokes which would then reduce that conversion rate?
Yeah. I mean, I'd say the high level, you know, using something in the range of. I think we actually have it in the deck as a footnote on one of the pages. But it's roughly speaking, you can use a ratio of like 0.35 tons of black mass to 0.65 tons of black mass, maybe a little bit more, this is approximate, for every ton of input. I would just say, you know, obviously it's quite variable as you're getting at. I would just say that's why we like to focus people on that intermediate product production number, because the feed can be quite variable.
Thank you.
We'll take a follow-up from Brian Dobson of Chardan Capital Markets.
Hi. Thanks so much for taking my follow-up. You received the licensing for the Rochester facility. New York is a very rigorous jurisdiction to receive such licensing, I suppose. Were there any key takeaways or learnings from that process that you think could accelerate future licensing processes for hub facilities?
Yeah, it's a great question. I would say that, you know, I have to take my hat off to my team, our team, that they did an excellent job in terms of managing the communication, making sure that all the key stakeholders were well educated in the process well in advance of us going through the formal application process. I think that point, you know, just from what's not a direct technical point, is just really important, and that's how we approach all learning activities. Going forward, that's, I think, you know, a key aspect of how we operate. We combine that with our technologically advanced process.
It's easy for people to understand what we're doing and why we're doing it, and easy to see the minimal impact that we're able to have. It starts with communication.
Just to add a little bit on Tim's points there from a bigger picture, and I touched on this in my remarks, but I just really wanna emphasize this because it's, it just speaks to our importance as Li-Cycle. What we just did on the Rochester hub, you would not be able to do, and I think everybody knows this, on a primary mine and refinery. It would take 5, 10 years, maybe never, depending on the locale and the various complexities involved. You backdrop that with a market that is short of these critical materials. Our speed to market, I talked about this in my remarks, but I just really wanna emphasize this, is way faster than any primary source.
We're entering a period where the winners of this space, in terms of broader EV, our view is, will be driven by their critical material access. We will be, as I parsed there, and we try to break it down pretty simply on page 12, a natural beneficiary of that. It sounds quite technical when we talk about the permitting, but that's the real big picture importance of it.
I would just sort of overlay one final point on that, and that is in relation to traditional recycling approaches and their lack of sustainability. What I'm referring to there is high temperature processing and the large amount of, you know, air emissions and solid waste that is generated from those processes. You know, we've deliberately gone away from that, and that is a key advantage for us to be able to address this and ultimately address the needs of domestic supply here in North America.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
We'll take a follow-up from Robin Fiedler of BMO.
Hey, thanks. I'm just wondering how important the expected feedstock from Ultium's Ohio plant is this year to meet the production guidance. Trying to get a sense of, you know, if that plant maybe ramps slower than expected, what that impact could be on your side. Thanks.
Yeah. I can maybe start and then Tim can add on. I think, yeah, look, at a high level, I think their timing is public. It's out there, so I'm not sharing anything here that's not known. I think again, it's public that it's really more through next year that they're into that more ramp-up phase in earnest. That's some commentary at a high level.
Yeah. I would just add to that is that, like any plant, there is a commissioning and ramp-up phase associated with bringing these assets online, and we take that into consideration in our own forecasts, as we make our estimates.
Okay.
Understood. Thanks.
We'll take a follow-up from P.J. Juvekar of Citi.
Yes. A quick one on some of your key partners. Can you just talk about what was the delay with LG and LG ES contracts? Should we read anything into that? A question on Koch Engineered Solutions or KES. That was your partner in building some of the stuff out. Can you just provide some update on that? Thank you.
Yeah, I can start with LG, P.J., and Tim can take KES. Yeah, in short, it was just we needed more time with LG. There's numerous agreements, numerous parties involved. We filed the amended subscription agreement. You'll see the only thing that's changed is the outside date, and that's it. Simple as that.
In relation to Koch and our partnership with Koch, we continue to work with Koch. They're in fact the lead on the build out for our Norway facility. We're utilizing their engineering team to convert our design to meet the European standards as well as managing the construction logistics and logistics support rather for that facility. We're very happy with our partnership with Koch. They've been a great partner and.
Great. Thank you.
This does conclude our question and answer session. I'd be happy to turn the call over to Tim Johnston for closing comments.
Thank you very much. Briefly closing with a recap, we continue to execute on our Spoke & Hub network growth objectives. We've obtained all key environmental permits for our Rochester hub to maintain on track commissioning in 2023. We expect 4 operating spokes in 2022 and 7 operating spokes in 2023. Our Spoke & Hub model is leading in North America with IP protected technology, an environmental net positive solution, and speed to market that is helping us solve the domestic shortage of battery materials. We are well funded for our current portfolio of projects with cash on hand and plans to future funding options. Li-Cycle is positioned to capture significant economic value with tightening battery material supply and demand dynamics that are driving pricing for battery materials to all-time highs. Our 2022 performance objectives are directly tied to key value drivers for shareholders.
We appreciate your time and interest in Li-Cycle and look forward to continuing to update you regarding our exciting growth prospects.
This concludes today's Li-Cycle Holdings' first quarter 2022 earnings call and webcast. Please disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day.