While this article would ordinarily look like just another...

While this article would ordinarily look like just another precursor plant article there could be more too it than meets the eye.

• Unicore is planning to bring products to market in 2026 which is a timeline aligned to GT1's planned start date
• They are in Ontario and have been given substantial government assistance to build the plant that obviously needs lithium and HPMSM
• They are working with unnamed cell makers although other articles link them to LG Chem
• GT1 has a cornerstone shareholder of LG Chem and LG Chem has a 25% offtake from GT1

Where the HPMSM for this is coming from remains unclear, however LG Chem has a long-standing relationship with GM. GM has signed an offtake deal with E25 for HPMSM and may be one possible source of HPMSM. GM clearly doesn't need HPMSM to make the bodies of car's, they need it for the Batteries within Car's.

Speculation time: Is GM is looking to work with LG Chem to make high lithium manganese (HLM) batteries and Unicore is one potential supplier of precursor material. LG Chem is making the batteries. E25 is a possible HPMSM source for Manganese. GT1 is a possible source of Lithium (although ideally for this to work GT1 would be providing Hydroxide not Spodumene). As noted in the article, the plant may start as NMC and flip to HLM.

https://www.bestmag.co.uk/umicore-sees-high-lithium-manganese-as-a-challenger-to-lfp-and-lmfp/
Umicore sees high lithium manganese as a challenger to LFP and LMFP - Best Magazine