Australian graphite producer Magnis Resources is to hold a 45% stake in a new company building a 30GWh lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Germany.
Plans to build the gigafactory in the state of North Rhine Westphalia were unveiled last year, with the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Magnis in a public-private partnership with WIN Emscher-Lipper— a consortium of firms including energy and chemicals companies, government agencies and financial institutions.
And Magnis said on 30 January the partners behind the new venture— to be called Listrom— have approved the start of a study to select the site of the new plant from two potential unnamed locations.
In addition, Magnis said talks are under way “with a range of existing conglomerates in regional chemical clusters” on creating a supply chain base. Magnis confirmed that several “promising, key meetings” had taken place with “senior members from major German OEMs, leading industry affiliates in the lithium-ion battery industry and material suppliers from both Europe and the US involved in this battery plant”.
Listrom is also included in discussions to shape the European Union’s proposed ‘battery alliance’ of businesses, Magnis said.
Meanwhile, a former top executive with energy firms including Shell and E.ON, Dr Joerg Fabri, has been appointed MD of Listrom. Magnis said Fabri also had experience in providing consultancy services “to a range of large battery companies”.
Fabri said the Listrom project offered a “tailor-made concept” specifically for the German market and its ‘energiewende’ policy of moving towards a “low-carbon, environmentally-sound economy”.
In September 2017, Magnis signed a separate deal to supply raw materials to German battery start-up TerraE Holding.
BBB reported last month that another Australian mining firm, Lithium Australia (LIT) had been awarded a licence to search for lithium in eastern Germany as a spur towards creating a “central processing hub in Europe” to support electric vehicle battery production.
