Canada's Rock Tech Lithium to build $544 million plant in Brandenburg

Rock Tech Lithium

11/10/2021 12:52

BERLIN, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Canada's Rock Tech Lithium
 RCK.V  plans to build a converter plant in Brandenburg, the
German state surrounding Berlin, to make battery-grade lithium
hydroxide for electric vehicles, the state's energy ministry and
the company said on Monday.
    The plant will be in the town of Guben, a roughly 90-minute
drive from where Tesla  TSLA.O  is building its gigafactory,
which includes a battery cell manufacturing site with 50
gigawatt hours of capacity.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2R5068
    State energy minister Joerg Steinbach said the decision
confirmed Brandenburg's status as a centre for the development
of electric mobility.
    In a separate statement, Rock Tech Lithium said the total
investment for the site was up to 470 million euros ($544
million) and that annual production would be 24,000 metric tons
of lithium hydroxide, enough to supply 500,000 cars with
lithium-ion batteries.
    The converter is scheduled to start operations in 2024, it
said.
    "In the future, Brandenburg will be home to the entire value
chain, from raw materials processing to battery and cell
production to e-car construction and battery recycling,"
Steinbach said.
    Several carmakers and battery cell players, including
Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE  and China's CATL  300750.SZ , as well as
Tesla, are expanding production capacity in Europe's top economy
as they bank on an expected mass roll-out of electric vehicles.
    "We are becoming the lithium partner of the automotive
industry and are building our own, previously non-existent
infrastructure for battery-grade lithium hydroxide in Europe,"
Rock Tech Lithium CEO Dirk Habecke said in a statement.
    "Our goal is to be the first company worldwide to create a
closed loop for lithium. Guben seems to us to be the ideal
location for this, with subsidies also playing a significant
role," he added.
($1 = 0.8645 euros)

 (Reporting by Miranda Murray; Additional reporting by Christoph
Steitz; editing by Barbara Lewis)
 ((Miranda.Murray@thomsonreuters.com;))