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According to foreign media reports, Swedish battery startup Northvolt and energy company Galp Energia plan to build a lithium conversion plant in Portugal to supply lithium materials to the region's growing electric vehicle industry.
On December 14, the two companies said they would form a joint venture called Aurora and build a lithium conversion plant that could produce 35000 tons of lithium hydroxide a year, enough to use about 700000 electric vehicles. Half of the plant's capacity will be used for Northvolt battery production.
According to statements issued by the two companies, the plant could cost about 700m euros ($790 million) and create 1500 direct and indirect jobs, making it the largest of its kind in Europe.
Although the two companies have not yet made a final decision on the specific location and total investment of the plant, they hope that the plant will be completed and put into operation in 2026. The joint venture will also continue to explore other opportunities in the value chain, the companies said.
Andy Brown, chief executive of Galp, said at a news conference in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, that the Portuguese port city of Sines was a possible site for the factory, but "we are also considering more sites, such as cities in northern Portugal."
Paolo Cerruti, co-founder of Northvolt, said the joint venture "will not only create a domestic supply channel for key materials for battery manufacturing in Europe, but may also set new standards for the sustainability of raw material procurement".
In June, Galp said it was looking for opportunities for lithium processing and signed an agreement with Savannah Resources in January to explore lithium deposits in northern Portugal. Brown said that although the two companies remain in touch, the preliminary agreement between Galp and Savannah has now expired.
"We keep an open mind about where to buy raw materials," Brown said. Although Portugal is rich in lithium resources, other countries also have lithium resources. "
Northvolt was co-founded by a former executive of Tesla in 2016 and has since reached multibillion-dollar supply agreements with Volkswagen and BMW (BMW).
