Electra Battery Materials fully expects government funding to roll in shortly to finish its incomplete cobalt and nickel refinery expansion in Temiskaming.
The Toronto company issued a Dec. 29 news release that it expects government funding “very early in 2024” to resume construction that was brought to a halt last year.
Electra is short US$60 million to finish its refurbishment and expansion of the former Yukon refinery located between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores.
Both the federal and provincial governments have committed to domestic critical minerals supply strategies to assist mining companies, processors, battery manufacturers and automakers with subsidies for the transition into cleaner transportation technologies.
Electra is also counting on private money flowing into the refinery in the form of strategic partners.
Want more business news from the North? Sign up for our newsletter.
Electra is building a one-of-a-kind facility in North America.
The refinery fills a gap in the supply chain that only exists in China and Scandinavia. There are no facilities online as of yet in North America that can take mined nickel and cobalt and convert it into the upgraded material that’s needed by the electric vehicle battery manufacturers.
Despite its inactivity at the Temiskaming site, Electra’s order book is already starting to fill up.
South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, one of the world’s largest battery-makers, signed a five-year commercial supply deal with Electra to take away 80 per cent of its cobalt sulfate production. The contract is worth $620 million. LG is in the process of building six battery plants in North America.
CEO Trent Mell said in a December online interview with CRUX Investor that all the custom-fabricated equipment has arrived at the site. Once the funding arrives, it’s just a matter of installation and commissioning. Finishing construction should take about a year’s time, he said. Electra also needs to replenish the ranks of its workforce, which went from 36 down to nine staff after the decision was made to halt construction.
As Electra awaits funding, the company is giving serious thought to establishing a second cobalt refinery in Quebec.
The provincial government there has invited Electra to set up shop in the port town of Becancour on the St. Lawrence River. With the lure of lavish subsidies, the Quebec government is establishing a massive battery materials industrial hub that’s already attracted the likes of nickel miner Vale, Ford, and other international players involved in the electric vehicle industry.
The company expects to release a study on the Quebec expansion during the first half of this year.
Electra has been using the idle time in Temiskaming to double down on its black mass battery recycling operation with a demonstration-scale pilot plant that’s producing satisfying results for the company and generating some much-needed cash flow.
