Canada’s Electra Battery Materials Corp. has signed a three-year deal to provide electrical automobile battery cell producer LG Energy Solution (LGES) with cobalt processed in Northern Ontario.
The Toronto-based mining and battery supplies firm mentioned Sept. 22 that the settlement covers shipments of seven,000 tonnes of the important thing battery steel produced at Electra’s cobalt sulfate refinery between 2023 to 2025.
Financial phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Electra CEO Trent Mell mentioned the corporate is “delighted” to signal its first strategic provide settlement with “such an important player in the lithium-ion battery market.”
“This is simply the start of a bigger strategic relationship with LGES involving our different belongings and progress initiatives within the North American battery provide chain,” he mentioned in a launch.
Electra is partway by recommissioning what could be North America’s solely cobalt refinery. Situated roughly 500 kilometres north of Toronto, straddling town limits of Temiskaming Shores and Cobalt, Ont., the location was initially developed within the Nineteen Nineties, however is being upgraded and expanded.
Electra had deliberate to start ramping up manufacturing of cobalt on the plant late this 12 months, however delays to shipments of “critical equipment” pressured it to reschedule the beginning of operations to spring 2023. The firm additionally hiked projected prices for the undertaking in August, to between US$76 and $80 million, up from $67 million initially.
Once totally operational, the cobalt sulfate refinery in Temiskaming Shores can be able to producing about 6,500 tonnes of cobalt sulfate per 12 months — sufficient to energy battery cells in about 1.5 million EVs.
The cope with LGES covers almost half of this capability in its latter years. Electra mentioned the battery cell maker will obtain 1,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate in 2023, and three,000 tonnes in every 2024 and 2025.
LGES CEO Youngsoo Kwon mentioned the settlement will contribute to the corporate’s strategic plans for North America.
“These partnerships serve as a crucial step towards securing a stable key raw material supply chain in the region,” he mentioned in a launch.
The two corporations additionally plan to collaborate on securing sources of uncooked supplies for the North American EV provide chain. Electra is presently growing a cobalt mining undertaking in Idaho, however Mell informed Automotive News Canada final fall that the corporate’s Ontario refinery will initially supply cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the place nearly all of the world’s cobalt is mined.
Details about what cell manufacturing vegetation will obtain the Ontario-produced cobalt sulfate weren’t instantly out there.
The South Korean battery maker has a stake in a rising checklist of North American initiatives. In partnership with Stellantis, LGES introduced plans to construct a C$5 billion battery cell plant in Windsor, Ont. this March. The firm can be a companion in General Motors Co.’s Ultium Cells three way partnership, which opened its first plant in Ohio in August. Construction on two different Ultium Cells vegetation is beneath method in Tennessee and Michigan, with one additional plant in planning.
Electra’s provide deal would be the first of many for homegrown mining corporations, mentioned Vic Fedeli, Ontario minister of financial improvement, job creation and commerce.
“Ontario is recognized for not just talk about critical minerals — lots of people can talk the talk. Ontario, we’re walking the walk now.”
The deal additionally pulls Northern Ontario instantly into the automotive sector, Fedeli added, offering good, value-added jobs the area that has targeted extra traditionally on useful resource extraction.
“We’re tired of being haulers and hewers… We want as much of the processing as we can feasibly in the north.”
Source: canada.autonews.com