Battery company AESC broke ground for its new LFP gigafactory site in Spain on 8 July.
The new plant, in Navalmoral de la Mata, Cáceres, is scheduled to begin production in 2026 and be one of the first in Europe to develop and manufacture LFP batteries.
The company said investment will exceed €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in its first phase and create 900 direct jobs. Final capacity will be a reported 30 GWh. It is working with local universities and regional authorities to create a training programme for local workers.
Spanish president Pedro Sánchez said at the groundbreaking the government is committed to attracting foreign investment.
In the UK, battery materials start-up Integrals Power is working towards setting up the country’s first LFP plant. It said it has completed a techno-economic analysis and ordered equipment needed to build a pilot plant in Milton Keynes. It expects to start production of LFP cathode material this year.
It has signed a supply agreement with First Phosphate of Quebec, Canada. First Phosphate’s high-purity phosphoric acid will be a key ingredient of the pilot plant, it said. Integrals has secured £2.8million ($3.6 million) of funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Innovate UK to enable the facility to be scaled up in the near future. It will manufacture precursors in partnership with First Phosphate.
First Phosphate announced on 10 July results from another 11 drill holes at its Bégin-Lamarche project in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec.
Its 25.9km drilling programme is complete and samples sent for analysis. Its plans are to mine igneous phosphate rock and use it to produce phosphoric acid.
It has entered into a mineral claims purchase agreement with arm’s length parties to acquire 15 additional mineral claims within the Bégin-Lamarche claim block in the area of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.