NEO Battery Materials Ltd announced that it has successfully received the final site approval from the Province of Gyeonggi to construct the commercial plant facility of its patented silicon anode materials, NBMSiDE, for electric vehicles lithium-ion batteries.
The company said that through NEO Battery Materials Korea Co Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEO, it secured land with approximately an area of 106,700 square feet, or 2.5 acres, for the initial phase of the NBMSiDE commercial plant facility.
"Our NEO and NBM Korea team have been eager and diligent to receive approval from the Province of Gyeonggi for the past three months as this site in the Foreign Investment Zone was the only remaining land apportioned for companies operating in the battery materials industry,” said Spencer Huh, CEO of NEO, in a statement.
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He added: “Despite our status as a micro-small capitalization foreign company compared to existing sizeable businesses in the Oseong Zone, NEO was approved by Gyeonggi Province and the Foreign Investment Review Board. For the past 2 months, during the review and due-diligence process from the Province, we had actively held dialogues with the Province's officials and representatives to respond and fulfill any requests for further investigation."
NEO initiated the site search in August of 2021 after the announcement of a strategic decision made to construct its silicon anode commercial plant in South Korea. After intensive research, communication, and negotiations with 2 provincial authorities, NEO had decided to apply to Gyeonggi-do, the company said.
NBM Korea has qualified an extensive and strict due-diligence process by the Province's authorities and the Foreign Investment Review Board based on NEO's commercialization timeline, viability and economic impact of the business with regards to the current battery materials industry and its downstream products, and various background reviews and stress tests, the company added.
"We strongly believe that the Province highly appreciated and held confidence in our clear roadmap of NEO's silicon anode, NBMSiDE, commercialization plan along with our proprietary technology and our high managerial capacity accustomed to the lithium-ion battery industry, said Huh.
NEO's benefited land is situated in an industrial complex known as Oseong International Investment Zone in Pyeongtaek City, in which the land is designated solely for the use of foreign investment companies qualified by the Province of Gyeonggi.
As a qualified company, NEO is entitled to several benefits and subsidies that will translate into both drastic cost savings in the short- and long-term for the anode material plant facility. The benefits include a 99% reduction of annual lease payments with a long-term-based lease contract, and further to it, the annual lease payment can be immediately minimized to zero after the completion of the plant construction and fulfillment of requirements by the Province. The company added that the maximum lease period for the land is 50 years.
"This site approval acts as a significant turning point and milestone for NEO to expedite our commercialization process for 2022 and beyond,” said S. R. Hwang, chief operating officer of NEO. “This land holds sufficient area to accommodate the production capacity of 1,000 metric tonnes per year with future expansion.”
He added: “As silicon anode materials have been garnering a greater amount of attention from all points and players in the lithium-ion battery value chain for electric vehicle applications, the synergistic relationship between NEO's performance advantages and low-cost manufacturing process is of particular interest to the counterparties.”
Hwang noted that with current developments to commercial-scale manufacturing, the company is on track and is confident to increase the silicon loading in the anode material for boosting the energy density and lifespan of state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries.
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