Ford has executed an offtake agreement with Australia-based battery materials company Liontown Resources for the supply of the lithium-providing spodumene concentrate for a term of 5 years.

“Ford continues working to source more deeply into the battery supply chain to meet our goals of delivering more than 2 million EVs annually for our customers by 2026,” says VP of EV Industrialization Lisa Drake. “This is one of several agreements we’re working on to help us secure raw materials to support our plan to deliver EVs for customers around the world.”

Liontown will source spodumene concentrate from its Kathleen Valley Lithium Project in western Australia. According to Liontown Resources, Kathleen Valley’s Mineral Resource Estimate is 156 Mt, 1.4% Li₂0 and 130 ppm of Ta₂0₅. Liontown plans to use a power supply comprised of 60% renewable energy to begin supplying Ford in 2024, to provide 75,000 DMT (dry metric tons) of spodumene concentrate the first year, 125,000 DMT in the second year, and 150,000 DMT during the third, fourth and fifth years.

The offtake agreement, when added to previous offtake agreements with Tesla and LG Energy Solution, enables Liontown to generate up to 450,000 DMT of spodumene concentrate per year—which is about 90% of its start-up production capacity. Liontown says the remaining 10% will go to spot volume sales and discrete offtake agreements.

Source: Liontown Resources via Green Car Congress