Skellefteå Archives - International Mining

A supplier of lithium-ion batteries to the mining equipment space, Northvolt, has recently received conditional backing from the European Investment Bank for a €350 million ($385 million) loan that could finance Europe’s first home-grown gigafactory.

Northvolt said the EIB had provided an in-principle agreement for the financing – the largest ever direct EIB financing approval for battery technology – and, upon conclusion of a loan agreement, the funding would be supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the main pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe.

The Northvolt Ett lithium-ion battery cell gigafactory will be established in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, a region home to a prominent raw material and mining cluster with a long history of process manufacturing and recycling.

“Noting the region’s clean power base, building the factory in northern Sweden will enable Northvolt to utilise 100% renewable energy within its production processes,” Northvolt said.

Northvolt already supplies lithium-ion batteries to Epiroc for its battery-electric underground mining vehicles and is believed to supply at least one of other major mining OEM.

EIB Vice-President, Andrew McDowell, said: “The development of a competitive and green battery value chain within Europe can not only cut greenhouse gas emissions by decarbonising power generation and transport, but can also help protect millions of well paid jobs in European industries in the face of increasing global competition.”

Northvolt Ett will serve as Northvolt’s primary production site, hosting active material preparation, cell assembly, recycling and auxiliaries. The construction of the first quarter of the factory is expected to be completed in 2020. Ramping up to full capacity, Northvolt Ett will produce 32 GWh/y of battery capacity, the company said.

Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Northvolt, said: “This EIB in principle approval is a key moment in the process of finalising our capital raise to support the establishment of Northvolt Ett. Today, we are one step closer to our goal of building the greenest batteries in the world and enabling the European transition to a decarbonised future.”

The capital raise, in which this EIB loan would be included, will finance the establishment of the first 16 GWh of battery capacity production, with the batteries from Northvolt Ett targeted for use in automotive, grid storage, and industrial and portable applications.

Ibrahim Baylan, Swedish Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation, said: “Today’s decision by the EIB is very gratifying and a big step towards a large-scale battery production in the EU and a fossil-free welfare society. The decision shows that there are prerequisites in Sweden for sustainable battery production, it is important for Sweden and the rest of the EU to produce battery materials and battery cells, based on green, Swedish electricity.”

Sweden-based miner LKAB says it will invest SEK45 million ($4.8 million) in pilot plants that could see phosphorus and rare earth metals produced from its own mine waste.

These plants are part of a prefeasibility study to define a commercial mine waste recycling process, ReeMAP, LKAB President and Group CEO Jan Moström said.

The company has made this decision after laboratory tests during 2018 confirmed it could produce more phosphorus and rare earth metals than previously estimated.

From LKAB’s iron ore production, a residual product resembling sand is currently placed in tailings dams. In the ReeMAP project, LKAB intends to recover the residual product and extract rare earth metals (REE) and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) from it.

Recovery and upgrading to phosphorus and rare earth metals is enabled by a patented process that has been developed by the Swedish company EasyMining, which is a Ragn-Sells innovation company within the Ragn-Sells Group. EasyMining is a partner in the ReeMAP project. The core process is based on EasyMining’s CleanMAP technology, which separates phosphate from water through ion sorption instead of energy demanding evaporation. At the same time, it removes impurities such as cadmium, uranium, fluorine in the MAP.

Leif Boström, Senior Vice President, Special Products Division, LKAB, said: “We are going to build two pilot plants for development and preparation for full-scale industrialisation: one in the orefields and one in Uppsala.”

The orefields plant will produce apatite from tailings sand, while the plant in Uppsala will be run by EasyMining, according to Boström.

Full-scale industrial production of MAP will correspond to an estimated 500% of Swedish demand and production of REE will amount to about 2% world production, according to LKAB. The pilot phase will continue through 2020, with a decision to go ahead with full-scale production possibly taken in 2021.

A pilot plant and a part of the full-scale production facilities will be situated close to LKAB’s existing plant´s in northern Sweden. Subsequent processing will take place in another location, for which three main alternatives are now being assessed, according to the company. The three main alternatives are Luleå, Helsingborg and Skellefteå.

Moström: “ReeMAP is a very good example of circular economy, of recovering and reintroducing resources. We will focus on developing an operation in the location that is the best alternative from an environmental point of view, minimises transportation of materials and utilises resources in the best way.

“If we succeed with the industrialisation process, we will create a whole new industry in Sweden that will supply the agriculture and engineering sectors with critical raw materials while at the same time generating jobs and value for society.”

EIB backing drives forward Northvolt lithium-ion gigafactory plan

LKAB invests in phosphorus and rare earth production pilot in Sweden