FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — ReElement Technologies in Fishers has officially expanded its metal recovery operations to the former Thomson RCA facility in Marion.

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The company will start with a few dozen employees, with plans to add several hundred. The facility used to manufacture tubes for TV sets before closing nearly 20 years ago.

ReElement President Ben Wrightman said, “Operations should begin in early Quarter 1 in 2024. Our goal is by this time next year, so (in) the September-October time frame, we’ll have some larger scale operations (in Marion) and then (continue) to grow.”

ReElement takes old batteries and magnets out of everything from wind turbine engines to power tool batteries. The batteries are stripped of precious metals and eventually sold to companies that repurpose them into parts for electric cars, jets, or computers.

The technology, pioneered by Purdue and Lilly, keeps old batteries from ending up at a smelting plant.

Wrightman said, “From power tools, electronics, consumer devices, it’s in everything, everybody has a battery on them today, several batteries on you today.”

Wrightman said in addition to creating jobs, recycling these elements is easier on the environment and reduces the need to import them from other countries. “Frankly, those critical elements and rare earth elements are just that, they are not in abundance, this isn’t carbon, this isn’t trees, this isn’t rubber.”

Eventually, ReElement plans to occupy up to 300,000 square feet of the old RCA plant, alongside some other businesses owned by ReElement.