EVelution Energy has received a non-binding Letter of Interest from Finnvera, Finland’s official export credit agency, indicating willingness to support up to $70 million in export credit financing for equipment and services associated with the company’s cobalt processing facility in Yuma County, Arizona. The Finnvera support is tied specifically to procurement from Metso, the Finland-based mining and metals equipment company expected to supply hydrometallurgical processing equipment for the facility’s cobalt refining circuits.

The LOI follows a previously announced non-binding indication from the Export-Import Bank of the United States for up to $200 million under EXIM’s Make More in America initiative.

The company says the facility will be the first commercial-scale, solar-powered cobalt processing operation in the US. Output is expected to reach approximately 7,000 metric tonnes per year of refined cobalt—split between battery-grade cobalt sulfate for EV batteries and alloy-grade cobalt metal for aerospace and defense. Construction is expected to begin in early 2027, and commercial operations are scheduled to begin in 2029.

The facility is located in a federally designated rural opportunity zone in Yuma County and is designed to generate its own solar power and recycle approximately 70% of its process water.

More than 75% of the world’s refined cobalt is currently processed in China, and the US has no commercial-scale domestic cobalt refining. EVelution’s other disclosed partners include Mitsui, Trafigura and Entreprise Générale du Cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo for feedstock arrangements.

Source: EVelution Energy