UK technology company Johnson Matthey (JM) has secured a site in Poland for production of its battery cathode materials. It has also announced a 10-year agreement with Nemaska Lithium to supply lithium hydroxide for the cathode materials, which it calls eLNO.

With these two developments, JM says it’s on track to start commercial production in 2021 or 2022 and to be supplying platforms in production in 2022 or 2023.

The manufacturing plant will be located in Konin, Poland. JM plans to initially start with 10,000 million tons per year. The company has agreed to purchase a 43-hectare plot, which JM hopes will allow it to expand manufacturing capacity to up to 100,000 million tons per year in the future.

Johnson Matthey CEO Robert MacLeod said, “We are commercializing our technology through flexible, scalable manufacturing capacity in Poland and a secure supply of vital lithium-based raw materials. We are firmly delivering in line with our strategy for breakout growth in battery materials.”

Source: Johnson Matthey