Electra Battery Materials, a Canadian multinational corporation engaged in mining and refining raw materials for electric batteries, has secured a $20 million loan from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for its Temiskaming cobalt sulfate refinery project, funds that will be used to support the construction and decommissioning of North America’s only refinery of its kind capable of producing battery-grade materials for the growing lithium-ion battery market.
As it stands, 80 percent of the global supply of battery-grade cobalt is produced in China, which demonstrates the need to strengthen domestic supply chains for these critical materials in the interest of national security, even if it means working across borders.
The refinery project is valued at $250 million and is expected to have the lowest carbon footprint of any such project in the world. The goal is to expand an existing plant, activity which is underway with most long-lead equipment on site already.
Once fully commissioned and operational, the facility will have the capacity to produce 6,500 tonnes of cobalt annually, enough to support the production of more than one million electric vehicles annually. Lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other critical materials have also been recovered at its refinery complex.
Through an agreement with Electra, LG Energy Solution will purchase upwards of 80 percent of the facility’s capacity over the first five years of operation, while others are competing for what remains. The demand is especially high given that the material will be ethically sourced from Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group mines in Africa, material that would have otherwise been shipped to China.
The DOD funding was granted under the Defense Production Act to boost domestic production capacity at the only facility of its kind in North America, making its supply strategic and worthy of investment.
