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Energy eyes Australian lithium producers to secure Europe’s EV battery supplies July 11, 2022 — 5.00am
London: A start-up company aiming to build one of Europe’s first lithium refineries in England to supply electric vehicle battery makers is eyeing off major investment in Australia to secure supply of the raw material.
Livista Energy, which has secured financial backing from the British government, is seeking expand Europe and UK’s lithium refining capacity to ensure supply to battery cell producers and electric vehicle manufacturers.
Lithium, which is extracted from rocks in Australia or brines in South America, is one of the key materials needed to make the batteries that power electric vehicles. Presently there are no commercial refiners in Europe, making the region’s car and battery makers almost totally reliant on China for supply.
The company’s co-founder and chief executive Daniel Bloor told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that to develop some of Europe’s first, and lowest carbon, lithium refining capacity, it was aiming to strengthen relationships with Australia to secure supply and refine in Europe and the UK.
In 2021, Australia was the world leader in terms of lithium mine production, with an estimated output of 55,000 metric tons. Chile and China ranked second and third, with lithium production totalling 26,000 and 14,000 metric tons, respectively.
The urgent need to grow supply presents a major opportunity for Australia’s mining sector, with more than half of the world’s lithium already produced in the country.
Bloor said that Australia, which last year signed a historic free-trade agreement with the UK, would be an excellent trade partner and further strengthen collaborations required to ensure a successful energy transition.
“The electrification of the car fleet means a whole new supply chain. Secure and reliant domestic supply chains are a clear trend,” Bloor said.“We have to make ourselves competitive to help empower a successful energy transition.”
The Albanese government has flagged it will continue the work of the Coalition government’s efforts to boost Australia’s critical minerals sector and actively boost trade routes with the Europe Union and the UK in the race to a decarbonised economy.
Liontown Resources and Pilbara Minerals last month announced they would spend more than $800 million to expand lithium production as both seek to capitalise on the global push to decarbonise and accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles.
Livista, which recently appointed former TotalEnergies executive Jean-Marc Ichbia as its chief operating officer, expects to have completed site searches towards the end of 2022.
The company was among a group of 21 projects that received nearly £45 million ($79 million) of support from the British government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre in its latest funding round.
The rapid increase in EV sales during the pandemic has tested the resilience of battery supply chains, and Russia’s war in Ukraine has further exacerbated the challenge.
The Internation Energy Agency warned policymakers, industry executives and investors in May that they needed to be “highly vigilant” and resourceful to reduce the risks of supply disruptions and ensure sustainable supplies of critical minerals.
In May 2022, lithium prices were more than seven times higher than at the start of 2021.
Livista wants to build a plant with an initial capacity of 30,000 tonnes a year, ramping up to 60,000 tonnes as demand for EVs increases. It is scoping sites such as Blythe, Northumberland, where Britishvolt, another start-up company, has started work on a £3.8 billion battery “gigafactory” to supply the UK car industry.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a leading industry price reporting agency and consultancy, forecasts 117,000 tonnes of lithium demand for batteries in Europe this year, rising to 250,000 tonnes in 2025 and 600,000 tonnes by 2030.
Both the UK government and the EU have announced a ban on sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030, to hit international climate targets and reach net-zero by 2050.
The Faraday Institution recently forecast demand for 10 gigafactories - which produced batteries for on a gigantic scale - in the UK by 2040, producing 20 GWh per year of batteries equating to 100GWh. It believes that the combined electric vehicle automotive and battery ecosystem could be worth £22 billion by 2030 and £27 billion by 2040.
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