Electra Battery Materials gears up to restart construction on stalled Ontario cobalt plant
Electra Battery Materials Corp. is positioning itself to restart construction on its stalled cobalt sulfate refinery in Temiskaming Shores, Ont.
The company said June 19 that it will invest $750,000 on an early works program this summer that includes equipment installations and concrete work critical to advancing the project after a two-year delay.
Electra CEO Trent Mell said the preliminary set of projects lay the 'physical and operational groundwork to accelerate into full construction.
'We are confident in our project and its strategic importance. Preparing for the final leg of construction is a reaffirmation of our commitment to delivering North America's only battery-grade cobalt refinery,' Mell said in a release.
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The summer work schedule follows a $200,000 investment in septic, power and lighting systems at the plant earlier this year, the company said.
Electra's fully permitted site about 500 kilometres north of Toronto has sat largely idle since May 2023, when the company halted work because of cost overruns, equipment delays and tightening finances. It is far from the only Canadian electric-vehicle battery supply chain project facing an uphill climb as EV demand falls short of expectations.
Electra estimates it will need about US $60 million to complete the refinery that will produce cobalt sulfate, a key ingredient in most of the EV batteries in use in North America today.
After securing funding commitments from an unnamed strategic investor and both the Canadian and U.S. governments totaling $54 million, Electra is just $6 million short of that target. It continues to work on solutions to fill the 'remaining gap,' said Heather Smiles, company vice-president of investor relations and corporate development, in an email.
The company provided no details on other possible funding sources, but said it expects to raise the additional funds needed to finish construction and begin production at the plant. If completed, the plant will be the only one of its kind in North America and one of a select few outside China.
From the outset of work on the refinery in 2021, Electra has maintained that demand for cobalt sulfate produced in North America remains high. The company signed an offtake agreement in 2022 with battery-cell maker LG Energy Solution that accounts for 80 per cent of the site's production capacity of 6,500 tonnes annually.
Smiles said the early works package undertaken this summer will allow full-scale construction to resume on the refinery within a few months of the company securing the necessary financing. She would not say how long the plant would take to complete once work resumes.
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