EDITOR’S NOTE: That is the second story in our four-part collection known as Canada’s EV Future.
About 500 kilometres north of Toronto, not far off the conifer-lined roadside of Freeway 11, a Canadian mining firm has begun development on a refinery advanced that would underpin North America’s electrical automobile provide chain.
Late in 2022, Electra Battery Supplies Corp. plans to start producing battery-grade cobalt at its refinery in Cobalt, Ont. From there, the roughly four-year-old firm has laid out plans that will see it broaden its web site into what would doubtlessly be the continent’s solely built-in battery-materials park.
Electra President Trent Mell is aware of that the street map is bold however mentioned the corporate is completely positioned to fill a serious hole in North America’s battery provide chain.
“Folks thought we had been dreamers,” he mentioned, referencing early questions on how the corporate would line up funding and handle to wrest market share from China, which refines about 80 per cent of the globe’s cobalt sulfate.
“And right here we’re. We’re funded. We’ve obtained nice assist. We’re going to get ourselves there.”
Contractors are actually on-site in Cobalt, shifting earth to clear the best way for brand new buildings and absolutely recommission a refinery constructed within the Nineties. The US$67 million challenge — not too long ago scaled as much as be able to processing 6,500 tonnes of cobalt from 5,000 tonnes due to sturdy demand — is absolutely financed.
The refinery will course of a stream of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the place a majority of the world’s provide is mined. Glencore shall be among the many suppliers. Electra introduced an settlement with the mining large in December to provide low-carbon battery-grade cobalt sulfate for the EV market. Within the close to future, nonetheless, Electra goals so as to add feeds from inside North America.
Electra’s wider plans for the battery advanced include a significantly larger price ticket. Mell estimates that the subsequent three phases of labor — a battery recycling plant, a nickel sulfate plant and a battery-precursor materials plant — will value about $500 million.
REBRAND AND REDEFINE
The scaled-up web site marks a serious shift for Electra, which rebranded from First Cobalt Corp. The corporate was based as a cobalt explorer, however its possession of North America’s solely permitted cobalt refinery and demand for battery supplies from automakers and others within the provide chain inspired the corporate to assume greater, Mell mentioned.
If the corporate can finance the subsequent three phases of its plan, probably by a partnership or three way partnership with a longtime battery participant, it would cowl every of the early levels of battery materials processing and be able to handing off what’s often called precursor cathode energetic materials (PCAM) to clients. PCAM would then be transformed into cathode energetic materials and integrated into the battery cells.
Whereas Electra has one thing of a head begin, it will likely be a aggressive market.
Canada has the pure assets for an intricate battery provide chain however runs into hurdles downstream, mentioned James Frith, an analyst who heads the power storage workforce at researchers BloombergNEF.
“Having uncooked supplies is one factor, however to actually appeal to the remainder of the provision chain, you wish to have that finish demand,” Frith mentioned.
He pointed to cell manufacturing and part manufacturing as two of the lacking hyperlinks.
The Ontario authorities has actively courted EV investments and has been selling itself as a vacation spot for battery producers. The province not too long ago mentioned it’s in discussions with a dozen trade gamers which can be sizing up Ontario for a battery plant, although no bulletins have been made thus far.
‘OWN THE CHEMICALS SPACE’
That is all of the extra motive to deal with the chemical substances house, mentioned Electra’s Mell. “Possibly we haven’t been as profitable as we had hoped up to now on the EV, on the meeting aspect of issues, relative to the southern U.S.,” he mentioned. “However we will personal the chemical substances house as a result of all of the minerals are right here.”
In contrast with different jurisdictions, Mell mentioned, Electra’s tie-in to Ontario’s clean-power grid and its proximity to the nickel belt round Sudbury, Ont., provides it an edge.
“If you happen to had been to start out from scratch, you most likely would wish to put this on the East or West Coast, proper?” he mentioned. “You’d wish to be ocean-bound as a result of it’s a world market. That’s what individuals have mentioned to us, and I wouldn’t have disagreed till we began nickel.”
Electra’s web site in Northern Ontario about 500 kilometres from the auto manufacturing hubs within the southern a part of the province and some extra hours from these within the northern United States.
This shortened provide chain suits inside the automotive trade’s lean-manufacturing mannequin, Frith mentioned.
“If you happen to can produce supplies in Canada, refine them in Canada, construct cells, then put them into automobiles in Canada,” he mentioned, “you might have a really quick provide chain, you’ll have a cleaner provide chain, and that may be enhanced by counting on the Canadian low grid emissions.”
Electra’s push to find completely different levels of the PCAM course of at one advanced, Mell mentioned, takes a web page from Harjavalta, Finland, the place the German chemical firm BASF is constructing an built-in refining operation. Electra goals to entice a longtime battery associate to co-locate at its Ontario web site, simplifying the provision chain and slicing prices for each events.