Electra Battery Materials Corporation (TSX-V:ELBM, OTCQX:ELBMF) announced that it will receive C$250,000 from the Government of Canada to support its recently announced battery materials park study.
The study, which was announced in late February 2021, sees a consortium including Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN) and Talon Metals Corp collaborating on the potential to develop a nickel sulfate plant as well as a battery precursor cathode active materials (PCAM) plant adjacent to Electra's cobalt refinery and recycling plant.
The Ontario government is also participating in the study.
READ: Electra Battery Materials partners with Ontario government, Glencore, and Talon Metals on battery materials park study
Project contributions from all parties total C$950,000 and will be completed in phases during the second and third quarter of 2022, Electra said in a statement.
Thanks to the additional funding from the federal government, the project will now be expanded to encompass additional environmental, social and governance (ESG) studies as well as further engineering and cost studies.
The consortium is hoping to create North America's first integrated, localized and environmentally sustainable battery materials park.
"We are pleased that the Government of Canada supports our vision of an integrated battery materials park, bringing together chemical refining, battery recycling and cathode precursor production as a means of establishing a world class battery supply chain with an ultra low carbon footprint,” Electra’s CEO Trent Mell told investors.
“The Federal Government has been one of our biggest champions and we are grateful for their support with this collaborative five-party consortium working to build out the missing pieces of the North American battery supply chain.”
Canada is home to an abundance of nickel, North America's only battery-grade cobalt refinery and clean hydroelectric power, Mell noted.
Electra's cobalt sulfate facility is on schedule to be commissioned in 2022.
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