In Europe, the materials technology and recycling group Umicore and the Finnish state mining company Terrafame have signed a long-term supply agreement for nickel sulphate. According to both companies, deliveries have already started and are to be increased further in the course of this year.
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General Motors is investing in the lithium producer Lithium Americas, thus securing access to the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, the largest known source of lithium in the USA and the third largest in the world. In addition, GM has secured its supply for another component for its electric cars with a German company.
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The Australian battery materials company EV Metals Group has secured 127 hectares of land in Saudi Arabia to build a battery chemicals processing complex. Production of lithium hydroxide at the plant located in Yanbu Industrial City is scheduled to start in 2026.
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Germany’s chemical corporation BASF and French miner Eramet are finalising a $2.6 billion deal to process nickel in Indonesia, country officials said. The report comes amidst Indonesia wooing international industry to invest in its resources for use in EV batteries.
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Car company Stellantis and Finnish state-owned mining company Terrafame have signed a supply agreement for nickel sulfate to be used in batteries for electric cars. Starting in 2025, Terrafame will supply nickel sulfate to Stellantis during the five-year term of the agreement.
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French battery manufacturer Verkor, which is a partner of Renault, has signed a letter of intent with Canadian battery materials company Euro Manganese to source manganese for the production of vehicle batteries. A binding purchase agreement has yet to be negotiated.
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Stellantis has entered into a binding agreement with the Australian mineral exploration company Element 25 for the supply of manganese sulphate for electric vehicle batteries. The deal provides for deliveries starting in 2026 and has a term of five years.
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The South Korean battery cell manufacturer SK On has signed a lithium supply contract with the Australian company Lake Resources. In total, the Korean battery manufacturer can purchase 230,000 tonnes of lithium from Lake Resources, which is enough to produce batteries for around 4.9 million electric cars.
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Stellantis has signed a non-binding agreement with GME Resources for the purchase of nickel and cobalt sulphate products from the NiWest project in Western Australia. The NiWest project is not yet in operation and a final decision has yet to be made.
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The Mexican government has founded a state-owned company to extract and market lithium. According to a decree by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the raw material is to be produced and distributed exclusively by Litio para México. The company aims to start operations in six months at the latest.
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In the UK, more than £43 million of UK government and industry funding has been awarded to projects including electric motorcycles and an all-terrain, 4×4 electric delivery truck designed for emerging markets. Grants also went to feasibility and early-stage proposals that could bolster the UK electric vehicle supply chain.
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India’s largest battery recycling company Attero plans to invest one billion US dollars over the next five years in the construction of recycling plants for lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles, among others, in Europe, the USA and Indonesia.
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Volkswagen has concluded two memoranda of understanding with Huayou Cobalt and the Tsingshan Group in China to secure access to essential battery raw materials. The three companies are planning two joint ventures.
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In the USA, the German chemicals group Lanxess is conducting a study with Standard Lithium to examine the construction of a lithium carbonate production plant. This should be located at the Lanxess’ site in El Dorado in the state of Arkansas.
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US President Joe Biden has now officially presented his two-trillion-dollar investment plan, with which he wants to fundamentally modernise the country’s infrastructure and stimulate economic growth.
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Starting next year, the BMW Group will be purchasing lithium from a second supplier, the US company Livent. The volume of the multi-year contract is around 285 million euros. Livent will supply the lithium directly to the BMW Group’s battery cell manufacturers.
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The Renault Group will cooperate with the waste disposal and recycling specialist Veolia and the chemical group Solvay in the development of a circular economy for metals from the spent batteries of electric vehicles. The three companies have presented a declaration of intent.
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A German-American research team has studied the electrochemical processes in lithium-ion batteries in more detail. They discovered that the lithium is not evenly distributed in the battery cells – a discovery that should improve the modelling of battery cells.
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Hydrovolt has started construction of a battery recycling plant in Fredrikstad, Norway. The newly founded joint venture between the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro says the plant will be operational at the end of 2021.
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VW’s Group Components division has commissioned a pilot plant for recycling batteries in Salzgitter. With the plant, which is to be scalable to higher capacities, Volkswagen wants to recover valuable raw materials and use them in new batteries.
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Volkswagen’s battery partner in China, Guoxuan High-Tech, has presented a new battery cell with LFP chemistry with an energy density of 210 Wh/kg. As early as next year, the company, usually known as Gotion High-Tech, wants to achieve 260 Wh/kg.
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The Finnish state mining company Terrafame has received environmental approval for the battery materials factory it has been planning for years in Sotkamo, Finland. Production, which is mainly geared towards nickel products, is scheduled to start in April.
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The first cobalt-free battery cells announced by SVOLT are now available for order worldwide. The NMX cells will initially be offered in two sizes: a 115 Ah version with 245 Wh/kg and a 226 Ah cell variant with 240 Wh/kg.
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The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Norway’s SINTEF institute are researching cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries in the EU project HYDRA together with ten partners. They want to test an industry-ready prototype for real-world operation in a ship battery system.
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SQM (Sociedad Química and Minera de Chile) has entered into a long-term agreement to supply lithium products to LG Energy Solution, the recently independent battery division of LG Chem. The contract is expected to run through 2029.
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In response to growing global demand for electric cars, Albemarle has announced an increase in capacity at its Silver Peak lithium production facility in the US state of Nevada. Albemarle will invest $30 million to $50 million to double production there by 2025.
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Tesla has signed a contract with the Chinese Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group to supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide for the next five years. According to a report from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the contract is worth between 513 and 716 million euros.
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The EU Commission has presented its proposals for mandatory sustainability criteria for batteries. For example, the CO2 footprint for batteries used in electric vehicles is to be regulated, and recycling quotas for certain materials are to be adhered to.
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Fortum has developed a new method to recycle lithium from rechargeable batteries. The Finnish company calls it a patented “breakthrough technology and a new recovery method” designed to reduce the environmental impact of recycling lithium.
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Volkswagen has joined the Cobalt for Development initiative to promote more sustainable cobalt mining in the Congo. The project is being implemented by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and has so far been financed by BASF, BMW, Google, Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI.
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