Glencore’s stake strengthens Britishvolt’s £ 4bn plans for battery factory | Glencore

Mining giant Glencore has agreed to buy a stake in Britishvolt, the startup that plans to invest £ 4bn in building the UK’s first full-scale battery factory to help speed up vehicle deployment electric.

Glencore said it made an undisclosed investment in the company as part of a long-term strategic partnership with Britishvolt to supply cobalt to its pioneer battery “gigafactory” in Northumberland.

Glencore is one of the world’s largest producers of cobalt, a by-product of its copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its nickel mines in Australia and Canada. It is also a key material used in the manufacture of batteries found in electric vehicles.

Britishvolt chief executive Orral Nadjari, who founded the company in 2019, said the partnership was “a big step in the right direction” that would help lock in its cobalt supply and reduce risk to the project by several. billion pounds.

The former investment banker has already won backing from investors in the Middle East and Scandinavia, but Glencore is the first major strategic investor to take a stake in the company.

Britishvolt’s battery plant is under construction on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station in Blyth, north-east England, where it will initially employ 1,000 people and then 3,000 once the gigafactory in full capacity.

When complete, Britishvolt expects the plant to produce enough battery cells for around 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs per year, which will primarily power the UK automotive industry.

David Brocas, Glencore’s main cobalt trader, said the miner’s commitment to backing Britishvolt was key to underpinning the long-term cobalt supply deal.

“As mobility and the energy transition accelerates, future demand for battery metals such as cobalt, copper and nickel is accelerating. Glencore is already a major producer and supplier of these metals, which helps underpin our ambition to achieve total net zero emissions by 2050, ”he said.

The deal is likely to rekindle concerns about the ethical purchase of cobalt to meet growing global demand for electric vehicles and Glencore’s operations in the DRC.

Glencore is under investigation by authorities in the UK, US and Switzerland, where the company is based, for alleged corruption. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into Glencore at the end of 2019 into “suspicion of corruption in the conduct of business”. The company is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the Swiss government for its alleged failure to prevent corruption in the DRC.

Nadjari said: “Knowing that we are supplied with ethically produced low carbon cobalt is a signal to the market that we live by our values.

“This strategic partnership aligns perfectly with our world-class ESG [environmental, social, and governance] principles, including the application of best practices to the extent possible, as well as the evaluation of the labor, human rights and ethical sourcing performance of our suppliers.