By Melanie Burton and Harish Sridharan
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Element 25 Ltd said on Monday it will supply manganese sulphate to General Motors Co as the automaker looks to secure supply of battery minerals for its North American electric vehicle production, sending its shares up more than 20%.The deal is the second by General Motors for Australian battery minerals as automakers globally rush to secure supply. In October the company said it will take an equity stake in Queensland Pacific Metals to secure a new source of nickel and cobalt for battery cells.
Under the agreement, GM will buy up to 32,500 tonnes of manganese sulphate per annum from Element 25 over a seven-year period from a new facility that will be built in Louisiana and supplied from its Western Australian Butcherbird mine.
The company did not disclose the value of the deal. Shares of Element 25 rallied as much as 23% before trading at A$0.69, up 15%.
GM will provide Element 25 with an $85 million loan to partially fund the construction of the facility for production of battery-grade manganese sulphate, the ASX-listed miner said.
Element 25 expects to invest about $290 million in total to build the facility, and it is scheduled to open in 2025.
GM currently expects to build 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 through mid-2024 and increase capacity to 1 million units annually in North America in 2025.
(Reporting by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru and Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Kim Coghill and Chris Reese)
