ICL breaks ground on battery materials plant

ICL has held the groundbreaking ceremony for a $400 million, 13,000 m2, 30,000 tones/year battery materials manufacturing facility at its Carondolet site at St Louis, Missouri. Present at the event on 8 August were Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, whose department granted $197 million towards building the facility under the Investing in America agenda, and Missouri governor Mike Parson.

Due to enter operation in 2025, this plant is expected to be the first large-scale lithium iron phosphate (LFP) facility in the US. It will supply the energy storage, electric vehicles and clean energy industries, creating some 150 new direct jobs and indirectly supporting 800-900 more positions during the construction phase.

LFP is said to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the battery industry. By 2031, E Source forecasts that global demand for iron phosphate-based cathode active materials will reach more than 3 million tonnes, with a market value of more than $40 billion, as the market moves toward safer, lower-cost cathode materials.