TOKYO : Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd said on Monday it had developed a technology to recover nickel and cobalt from rechargeable batteries such as used lithium-ion-batteries (LIBs) that can be reused as raw materials for LIBs. Japan's biggest nickel smelter, which has been able to recover nickel and copper from rechargeable batteries since 2017, has successfully recovered a high-purity nickel-cobalt mix by separating impurities, it said in a statement.