LG Energy to procure lithium from Vulcan Energy
10,000 tonnes per year
LG Energy Solution will procure lithium from Australia’s Vulcan Energy.
The five year contract can be extended by another five years. The contract will be signed in November.
Vulcan Energy will supply 5,000 metric tonnes of lithium hydroxide in 2024. Afterwards, it will supply 10,000 metric tonnes of the material per year.
The Australian firm is planning to build an environmentally friendly lithium mining facility near the Rhine in Germany.
The facility will be able to mine 15,000 metric tonnes of lithium in 2024, and 40,000 metric tonnes of the material in 2025.
Lithium hydroxide synthesizes well with nickel, making it convenient for battery makers such as LG Energy Solution to apply high-nickel cathodes in its batteries.
High nickel batteries offer longer traveling distance per charge for electric cars.
In June, LG Energy Solution also signed a contract with Australia’s Infinity Lithium to procure lithium hydroxide.
According SNE Research, demand for cathode is expected to be around 2.75 million tonnes by 2025, six times that of 2019.
LG Energy Solution supplies its batteries to Tesla, Volkswagen, Ford and other car manufacturers.
The company is aiming to expand the production capacity of its battery plant in Michigan in the US to 75GWh by 2025. Its joint venture with General Motors, Ultium Cells, is building a 35GWh plant in Ohio.