Teesside lithium plant asks taxpayers’ fund for millions
A START-UP is seeking taxpayer support to build the UK’S first major lithium refinery in Teesside.
Green Lithium has applied to the Government’s automotive transformation fund for a grant worth “tens of millions” for the proposed plant, which will help supply the refined metal crucial for electric car batteries.
The sum is a small part of the £600m or more Green Lithium will need for the project, but it is hoped the grant would help encourage private investors to back the initiative. If successful, it would add to a £600,000 government grant the company has already received.
Backed by the commodities giant Trafigura, Green Lithium is planning on building a plant that can produce about 50,000 tons of refined lithium hydroxide per year by 2027, which it says is enough to make batteries for about one million electric cars annually.
The plant will be built on the site of what was once a Shell oil refinery in PD Ports’ Teesport and will create 1,000 jobs during the three years of building, according to Green Lithium. It will provide 250 full-time jobs once finished, with first production expected in 2025.
Green Lithium’s plans to build a refinery are part of a government-supported effort to establish an electric car industry in the UK. Most of Green Lithium’s output will initially be sold into Europe, however, as the UK currently lacks capacity to turn the refined lithium into cathodes for battery cells.
Green Lithium secured a deal with Trafigura in May which saw the commodities trading giant promise to invest an undisclosed sum in equity as well as supply the plant with lithium.
Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, visited the proposed site of the refinery yesterday. He said the plant was “allowing us to move quickly to secure our supply chains of critical minerals, as we know that geopolitical threats and global events beyond our control can severely impact the supply of key components”.
Claire Blanchelande, head of Lithium at Trafigura, said: “The refinery will be one of the few ready by the middle of this decade when we see demand for electric vehicles picking up in a very significant way in the UK and Europe.”