NEO Battery Materials Ltd said it has completed a contract for its silicon anode commercial plant's construction, design, and permits with a South Korean-based architectural firm and has secured an engineering design contract as well.
The company's 2.5-acre commercial plant is located in Gyeonggi Province's Oseong International Investment Zone in South Korea.
While the architectural firm will be responsible for the plant's construction, architectural design, and construction-related permits, the company said eight engineers experienced in designing and constructing pilot and commercial plants will commit on a full-time basis to construct the company's mass-production lines.
READ: NEO Battery wins final site approval for land use of 2.5 acres for NBMSiDE commercial plant facility in South Korea
NEO Battery Materials said its commercial plant’s location will give it a logistics and battery supply-chain advantage as the plant will be in proximity to large battery manufacturers such as LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI.
As announced, the first phase of the commercial plant will possess an initial annual capacity of 240 tons of its patented silicon anode materials, NBMSiDE, for electric vehicles' lithium-ion batteries. Also, the facility will be built as a 4-story office building with additional space that can accommodate a production expansion of 1,800 tons of the company's anode material for the subsequent phase.
NEO said the necessary construction-related permit and approval process will be simultaneously undertaken, and this process is expected to take about two months to complete.
To optimize the process design for manufacturing NBMSiDE, NEO has been closely collaborating and working with the engineering firm's principal engineer over the past year. The company will now advance to the detailed process design for the production lines and will proceed with early orders of components that have long lead times for the commercial plant.
Through a structured execution plan of performing procurement and construction processes one after another, NEO said it expects to achieve the initial commission of the commercial plant by the first half of next year.
"The ongoing activities related to the construction of our Commercial Plant are being undertaken in both an efficient and timely fashion. By teaming up with richly experienced architects and engineers, we have greater confidence and strengthened visibility to expedite our commercialization process,” said NEO CEO Spencer Huh in a statement
"For the meantime, with strategic advisors in South Korea, we are currently working on pursuing strategic investments and communicating with the respective companies and investors to finance the construction of commercial plant mainly through our wholly-owned subsidiary, NBM Korea Ltd. We deem that this pathway will protect and add to NEO's shareholders' value in both the short- and long-run.”
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