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REGIONAL ROUND-UP

UK refinery finds a fortunate its business model had so far at-
Hatcher said the company was also

tracted interest from such a diverse group
taste for Aussie lithium of investors, including those directly at-
tached to battery manufacturers, OEMs
and chemical groups.
“From a purely financial basis, there’s
eading commodity trading house ropean market. capital in the markets currently looking for
LTrafigura is backing development of a “There’s relative stability in the Europe- opportunities in the energy transition sec-
new UK-based lithium refinery which has an market and I think most people recog- tors and we see the battery metals supply
put out the call for Australian producers to nise there’s very similar cultural business chain providing significant commercial op-
diversify their offtake base away from the practices between Europe and Australia portunities for capital growth,” he said.
dominant Chinese market. which we see as an advantage…to estab- “We’re interested in establishing long-
Under a partnership with Green Lithium lish a more stable and secure supply chain term, stable commercial supply agree-
Refining Limited, Trafigura will invest equity route into Europe.” ments with raw material producers. We
in the unlisted UK company’s development A co-founder of Green Lithium Refining think there’s an opportunity to develop
phase funding round for the construction Limited, Hatcher said the company would commercial relationships that are more
of one of Europe’s first centralised com- undertake detailed engineering for the integrated.
mercial lithium refineries. proposed UK-based refinery over the next “Our plan is to offer access to the Euro-
Trafigura intends to supply lithium feed- 12 months, after which it hoped to achieve pean market and a line of sight on products
stock for the UK-based refinery which will planning permission and arrive at a final through traceability initiatives using block-
produce battery-grade lithium chemicals investment decision for construction. chain etc, which we think is an important
for the lucrative European EV and battery Construction will likely take about 2.5 developing industry, all the way through to
manufacturing markets. years with first lithium chemical production European OEMs. Raw material producers
Representatives from Green Lithium Re- targeted for late 2024 before being ramped will know exactly where their product is go-
fining Limited recently travelled to Australia up to full capacity of 50,000 tpa within two ing through these strong partnerships with
to detail plans for the refinery with potential years. European facilities.”
investors and gauge interest from the na- Hatcher said the company had decided Hatcher also said it would not be long
tion’s existing and future lithium producers. on a UK location because of the relative before the Green Lithium Refining Limited
Speaking to Paydirt following his visit, ease of access to renewable energy infra- team returns to Australia to strengthen ties
Green Lithium Refining Limited technical structure. with those parties which expressed initial
director Guy Hatcher highlighted the op- “There’s a developing hydrogen econo- interest in the proposed UK refinery.
portunity for Australian companies to cap- my in the UK, excellent offshore wind ac- “We’re keen to come back in the near
ture more of the upstream value chain by cess for electricity demand, there’s carbon future with OEMs and bring that automo-
partnering with European counterparties. capture and storage and we have the ben- tive relationship to raw materials produc-
“There’s a growing motivation amongst efit of being able to engineer efficiencies ers and have all parties around the table,”
the raw materials suppliers to diversify in at the design phase, rather than looking Hatcher said. “We feel it’s a whole supply
their offtake base,” he said. at retrofitting carbon reduction strategies chain solution. Visibility and vertical inte-
“A lot of the Australian miners are 100% to established industries, which is difficult gration is increasingly important around
beholden to the Chinese market. Now and not as efficient,” he said. battery metal supply chains.”
there doesn’t need to be 100% diversifi- “We think it’s a great opportunity and it’s Morella Corp (formerly Altura Mining)
cation, but it’s sensible in any industry to resonated with quite a lot of people so far. chief executive Alex Cheeseman is a non-
have some diversification of your offtake It’s a pretty simple concept really, it’s just executive director of Green Lithium Refin-
base and there’s a recognition now there’s been overlooked. We’re pretty excited to ing Limited.
significant growth opportunities in the Eu- get on with it and start delivering.” – Michael Washbourne

An artistic impression of Green Lithium’s proposed lithium refinery in the UK. It is expected
to be one of the UK’s first centralised commercial lithium processing facilities

PAGE 120 JULY 2022 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT