Canadians want to invest heavily in lithium processing> teslamag.de

Meanwhile, the state of Brandenburg has managed to get its own name behind the factory in its field, at least in official references, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously called “Giga Berlin”. Recently, the “Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg” was already decorated on screens at the festival that Tesla held at its headquarters last Saturday, and Musk also used the long form. Once the Tesla hype was over, Brandenburg Economy Minister Jörg Steinbach was able to announce another successful state settlement.

Cleantech as a partner in Tesla?

On Twitter Monday, the minister wrote that Canadian company Rock Tech Lithium will manufacture the first converter in Europe to produce battery-compatible lithium hydroxide in Joben. To this end, he published a picture of himself and other officials under the coat of arms of a small town in the far east of Brandenburg. As Steinbach explained in a press release, this means: With Tesla, BASF’s planned cathode production in Schwarzysdy and moving out of Canada, the state will become the first region in Europe where the entire electric vehicle value chain begins with processed raw materials until the final vehicle can be found.

First, Rock Tech purchased a plot of about 12 hectares with good rail connections in the Guben-Süd industrial district for 1.1 million euros, The company announced itself. A converter plant there is scheduled to come online in 2024, which includes all steps of lithium refining. The raw materials themselves come from a mine in Canada, where they are brought in by ship and rail. Rock Tech describes itself as a clean technology company and announces that by 2030, about 50 percent of the raw materials it uses will be obtained from battery recycling.

Lithium for 500,000 electric cars per year

According to the announcement, up to 470 million euros will be invested in Guben and 160 new jobs will be created at the facilities. The planned production volume is 24,000 tons of lithium hydroxide per year — enough to power the batteries of about 500,000 electric cars, Rock Tech writes.

If any of this is for Tesla, the notice doesn’t state it, but it does. Because the company also wants to produce its own batteries at a Gigafactory just 100 kilometers away in Grünheide — as CEO Musk explained at Giga-Fest there, at least 5,000 electric cars per week by the end of 2022. That’s older than what Rock Tech claims it can On delivery, but if Tesla is already offered by 2024, there should be enough other customers: According to a recent study, the total annual battery production capacity is almost 1 terawatt. planned in Europe by 2030.