Or how about Volkswagen or BMW. Because if you compare the TWO articles with the latest one only days ago to that of the comments made by Northvolt almost 2 years ago , you can see that there will be a significant more Lithium required by them moving to what was a first stage of only 16 GWh Factory to that of what's now being proposed with their $2.75 billion injection of additional funds and taking their Factory to 60 GWh.

Northvolt ▸ Selected industry partners: ABB, BMW, Epiroc, Scania, Siemens, Stena, Vattenfall, Vestas, Volkswagen

And Sayona with it's Abitibi-Temiscamingue Lithium proposed HUB will definitely be able to satisfy Northvolt's requirement in Lowering the distance from Mine to Processing Facility , and the overall resulting Carbon footprint of the Sayona / NAL produced end product Lithium Hydroxide.

So could easily be any of their current Off-take partners. Whatever the case , I do believe it will be a scramble and a case of ' First in Best Dressed ' when the Purity results announcement finally drops.

Jun 10, 2021,

Northvolt To Step Up Battery Cell Output With $2.75 Billion Equity Round

Electric battery cell producer Northvolt is to increase production capacity by 50% at its first gigafactory in Northern Sweden, thanks to an additional $2.75bn equity fund raising agreed yesterday.

The new investment will enable Northvolt Ett to build a factory which will take capacity up from 40 to 60 GWh a year. Northvolt will be able to produce enough batteries for 1 million electric vehicles a year, rather than 700,000 - 800,000 previously expected.

The size of the factory will stay the same, confirms Northvolt VP Jesper Wigardt.

Northvolt’s aim is to produce 25% of Europe’s batteries by 2030, but already demand from key customers is greater than expected. Earlier this year, it signed a $14 bn battery order with Volkswagen (VW) for the next 10 years, establishing it as the lead battery cell provider for the German automaker. By 2023, Northvolt batteries are likely to be in VW’s new premium EVs.

It won’t be all VW at Northvolt Ett – Northvolt also has contracts worth more than $13bn from BMW, Fluence and Scania.

Northvolt Ett, under construction since Summer 2018, will be ready to start production later this year. Production is expected to ramp up gradually over the next 3 - 5 years.

December 13, 2019

“We have secured our sources of raw materials for our first 16 GW h,” says Chief Operating Officer Paolo Cerruti, who cofounded Northvolt with CEO Peter Carlsson. Both are former Tesla executives.

Northvolt’s lithium will come from spodumene ore mined in Australia and Canada, and it will be processed and refined into lithium hydroxide at plants located near these mines. Bringing lithium hydroxide from thousands of kilometers away will inevitably incur a carbon penalty. “But the distance between the mine and the refinery is actually more important,” Nehrenheim says.

China's Tianqi Lithium will supply Northvolt with lithium hydroxide from a new refinery in Western Australia, using ore mined some 250 km away—a lot closer than China. Northvolt’s Canadian supplier is Nemaska Lithium in Quebec, which has developed a new approach to making lithium hydroxide that relies on electrolysis. By running on hydroelectric power, the process will shrink the material’s carbon footprint.This sounds well and good, but Nemaska reported in November that it will idle its mining and refining operations until it can raise more capital. “They have a huge cost overrun,” says Martin Potts, mining research director at the investment bank finnCap.

Nehrenheim contends that Northvolt will still be able to source enough lithium hydroxide elsewhere, but Potts is not so sure. Nemaska had agreed to supply Northvolt Ett with up to 5,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide per year, which Potts estimates is about one-quarter of the lithium the gigafactory needs. “They could find they’re trying to start up a factory without the required raw material,” Potts says.

Keep in mind that NAL's early 2015 feasibility economic numbers were suggesting 2,000 tonnes per anum of Lithiuym Hydroxide.....