Electra Battery Materials Corporation (NASDAQ: ELBM | TSXV: ELBM) has received a C$5M investment from the government of Canada towards the construction of North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery.
Located in Ontario, Canada, the facility will produce approximately 5%of the global supply of battery grade cobalt needed for electric vehicles (EV). The investment will be provided in the form of a grant from the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario.
“Canada has surpassed China as the top jurisdiction in the global battery supply chain, given its strength in raw materials mining and processing,” commented Trent Mell, Electra’s CEO.
“We are grateful for this additional investment as it represents added validation of our progress and will allow Electra to continue to work toward our goal of producing secure, clean, and ethically sourced materials that are a crucial part of a sustainable future for EVs in Canada.”
Pending completion, Electra’s refinery complex aims to be the first in North America to integrate the production of critical minerals, including cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate, needed for the North American EV battery supply chain with the processing of black mass material, designed to recover high value elements found in recycled lithium-ion batteries, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, and copper.
Throughout 2023, Electra operated a plant scale battery recycling trial at its refinery complex, processing more than 40t of black mass material and producing high-quality nickel, cobalt, and lithium products. Once fully commissioned, the refinery could produce sufficient cobalt for up to 1.5M EVs annually.
Electra is a processor of low-carbon, ethically sourced battery materials. Currently focused on developing North America’s only cobalt sulfate refinery and a black mass demonstration plant, Electra is executing a multipronged strategy to onshore the electric vehicle supply chain.
Keys to its strategy are integrating black mass recycling and nickel sulfate production at Electra’s cobalt refinery located north of Toronto, advancing Iron Creek, its cobalt-copper exploration-stage project in the Idaho Cobalt Belt, and expanding cobalt sulfate processing into Bécancour, Quebec.
For further information, please visit: www.electrabmc.com
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