Umicore in Canada CAM plant deal

Umicore is to build a facility for cathode active materials and their precursors in Loyalist, Ontario. Construction is due to start in 2023 with operations beginning in 2025. By 2050, it will produce enough to power about one million electric vehicles. The plant will be run entirely on renewable energy.

This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Canadian government to finalise the support application of the project under the Strategic Innovation Fund and the acquisition of about 140 hectares of land on which to build the plant. The company is now in negotiations with potential customers.

Umicore added that this will be the first facility of its kind in North America, including precursors, thus “completing the missing link in Canada’s battery value chain, from natural resources to electric mobility”. Loyalist itself is in the middle of the Canadian automotive manufacturing heartland.