The Luxembourg-based company Livista Energy Europe is planning a lithium refinery in Germany. This is to go into operation in 2026 and produce up to 40,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium products per year – enough for the batteries of around 850,000 electric vehicles.
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Mercedes-Benz has signed a supply contract with the Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel (H2GS) for around 50,000 tonnes of virtually CO2-free steel per year for its European press plants. The steel is to be used in various series models of the carmaker.
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Fortum Battery Recycling and AMG Lithium have signed a preliminary contract and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the recycling of lithium salts. The common goal is to process lithium salts in Germany into battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
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The US mineral oil company ExxonMobil is apparently getting involved in lithium mining. According to information from US media outlets, the oil giant has acquired drilling rights for an area in the US state of Arkansas where large lithium deposits are suspected.
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Ford is procuring lithium on a large scale for the batteries for its electric cars. The carmaker now signed agreements with five companies. Depending on the supplier, the first battery-grade materials will be delivered to the carmaker between 2025 and 2026.
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Negotiations between the US and the EU on the planned agreement on the critical minerals for EVs are taking longer than expected. It would give European carmakers access to tax credits in the US.
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South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution (LGES) is investing in Australian-based lithium miner Green Technology Metals (GT1) and has signed a preliminary supply agreement with GT1 for North America.
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The EU Commission has approved an €837 million Spanish government programme to support the production of batteries for electric vehicles under EU state aid rules. The programme is open to battery manufacturers and essential components or related raw materials suppliers.
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From summer 2023, the electric models EQE and EQS will be among the first Mercedes-Benz equipped with aluminium with almost 70 per cent CO2 reduction compared with the European average. It will be supplied by the company’s partner Hydro.
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Lithium companies Livent and Allkem are merging in a US$10.6 billion stock deal to create the world’s third-largest producer of lithium chemicals by volume.
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General Motors-backed Canadian battery recycler Lithion is building its first commercial critical minerals recovery facility in St-Bruno-de-Montarville, near Montreal, with plans to start operations this autumn.
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Mining company Glencore and battery recycling specialist Li-Cycle have announced plans to build Europe’s largest battery recycling plant on the Italian island of Sardinia. A final decision will be made next year.
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Tesla has officially begun construction of its own lithium refinery in Texas and plans to complete it next year. By 2025, Tesla plans to produce enough battery-grade lithium hydroxide for one million electric cars at the site near Corpus Christi.
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Volkswagen’s battery subsidiary PowerCo is to employ almost twice as many people at the end of this year; up to 1,500 compared to the current 800. The company is also increasingly looking for suitable specialists in Asia.
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The American speciality chemicals company Albemarle has announced a doubling of the production capacity of its Kemerton lithium hydroxide plant in Western Australia. Instead of 50,000 tonnes per year, the plant will be able to produce 100,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide at full capacity.
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Stellantis has secured nickel and cobalt from Australia. The car company entered into a binding agreement with Alliance Nickel (formerly GME Resources) to supply 170,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 12,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate over an initial period of five years.
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Fortum has completed its lithium-ion battery recycling factory in Harjavalta, Finland, on time. Announced in 2021, Fortum says this is the largest recycling plant in Europe in terms of capacity and also the first commercial-scale facility for hydrometallurgical recycling.
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BMW’s investment arm BMW i Ventures announced an investment in Cyclic Materials, a Canadian company focused on recycling rare earth elements (REE). Regarding e-mobility, Cyclic Materials cooperates with Polestar to recover magnets for electric motors.
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Porsche is cooperating with the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro to significantly reduce the CO₂ footprint of aluminium in the automotive supply chain. By 2030, the aluminium supplied to Porsche and its suppliers should even be CO₂-free.
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The German government is planning to set up a sovereign wealth fund worth up to 2.2 billion euros to finance the mining and production of critical raw materials for electric car batteries.
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BYD is planning to build a battery material factory in Chile. That is according to the Chilean economic development agency CORFO. The South American country wants to put the lithium industry under state control – but BYD, among others, could be given preferential treatment.
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A new EU project called METALLICO is looking into how battery metals such as lithium, cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel can be extracted in a sustainable way from primary and secondary raw material sources. The project includes 23 partners from nine countries.
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In Germany, battery industry players and university researchers are partnering on a joint project to improve the ecological footprint of lithium-ion batteries. The project, called SWELL, is led by battery electrolyte company Elyte Innovations, and joined by a team at the Technical University Dresden and the automotive lubricants company, Fuchs Smierstoffe.
Read moreWith the EU Commission having drafted the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), we talked to Vulcan Energy, Skeleton Technologies and volytica diagnostics, who all have new approaches to the supply and use of battery raw materials.
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The South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution has signed a letter of intent with the Chinese Yahua Industrial Group to produce lithium hydroxide in Morocco. The location was a strategic choice.
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Group14 Technologies has begun construction of its second US factory for the production of battery materials. The campus in Moses Lake, Washington state, will house the world’s largest factory for silicon battery materials for use in electric vehicles, according to Group14.
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The US Treasury Department has released the long-awaited conditions that electric vehicles must meet to qualify for tax incentives of up to $7,500 under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). There are no big surprises – though the eligibility of many EVs will be decided elsewhere.
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The North American battery recycler Li-Cycle is cooperating with the industrial truck manufacturer Kion Group. Under the agreement, which runs until 2030, Li-Cycle will recycle batteries from Kion’s global brands starting in the second half of 2023.
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After the US and the EU announced in mid-March that they wanted to negotiate an agreement on critical minerals for electric car batteries, the US government now submitted a concept paper for a transatlantic raw materials partnership to the EU Commission.
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US battery recycler Cirba Solutions is investing $300 mn in a new recycling factory in South Carolina. The company, which counts GM among its customers, plans to start construction near Columbia in Richland County this year and begin operations by the end of 2024.
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