Sign in
EVM lines up private equity investment for Yanbu plant as Saudi pushes ahead with lithium, EV-tech ambitions: Australian battery chemicals company EV Metals Group (EVM) has lined up investment from US mining and mineral private equity firm Resource Capital Funds for EVM Arabia’s lithium chemicals plant in Yanbu Industrial City, according to a statement.
What’s the status on the ground: EVM is ready to start construction of the first two processing trains, which it says will have an annual production capacity of 50k tons of high-purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate. Output will be sold to the clients in Europe and the Middle East, it says.
BACKGROUND- EVM signed an agreement with Finnish industrial machinery company Metso to establish the plant in January using Metso’s leaching technology. The battery chemicals company also agreed with the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu last year to establish a facility to produce key chemicals for EV batteries and renewable energy storage.
EVM has other projects in Saudi: EVM’s subsidiary Riwaq Al Mawarid for Mining signed a binding earn-in joint venture agreement with UK exploration company Power Metals Resources to expand EVM’s exploration activities in the Arabian Shield in March. EV Metals Group is based in Australia but has offices in the Kingdom and the UK, according to their website.
REMEMBER- Saudi has been working on strengthening its critical minerals supply chain: The kingdom signed an agreement with the UK in May to strengthen the global supply of critical minerals and prioritize the sustainable production of critical minerals essential to EV, wind turbine, and solar panel manufacturing.
