Umicore awards Worley contract for battery materials plant in Canada
Umicore’s Rechargeable Battery Materials Canada Inc. has awarded Worley Limited an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services contract for its battery materials manufacturing plant in Canada.
Umicore plans to build a battery materials plant in North America, producing cathode active materials and precursor materials (pCAM) for rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). The plant is expected to be the first of its kind in the region, supporting around 1 million EVs/year by 2030.
According to Worley, the award represents its ability to deliver large-scale projects in a rapidly growing area, with EPCM services provided through its Canadian offices, Latin American teams, and global integrated delivery in India.
“We are pleased to be working with Umicore on this project, where we are delivering services supporting the battery materials manufacturing plant, consistent with our purpose of delivering a more sustainable world,” Worley CEO Chris Ashton said.
Umicore is building a new manufacturing plant in Loyalist township. The envisioned project, with a total eligible cost envelope of up to US$2.761 billion, is planned to be executed in multiple stages.
Umicore has announced its firm investment decision for the first stage of US$2.1 billion, of which US$1.8 billion is capital expenditures, for a battery materials production capacity of 35 GWh annually.
Based on the full scope of the envisioned project, the Government of Canada is supporting Umicore’s project through an investment of up to US$551.3 million, while the Government of Ontario is investing up to US$424.6 million.
The first of its kind in North America, Umicore’s facility will produce CAM and pCAM on a large industrial scale for EV and battery producers in Canada and the US. In the project’s first stage, the company will create 600 new direct jobs, plus an additional 700 co-op positions for students will be created throughout the project, making Umicore one of the largest private employers in Eastern Ontario.
The full project has the potential to produce enough battery materials to support the production of over 800,000 EVs per year, utiliSing Canadian critical minerals, including nickel, lithium and cobalt, and strengthening Canada’s and Ontario’s domestic EV supply chain and batteries ecosystem.
Thanks to Canada’s abundance of clean energy, the facility will be nearly carbon neutral from the start of production.
In the last three years, Canada and Ontario have attracted historic new investments by global automakers, EV battery manufacturers and battery materials suppliers. Canada and Ontario have all the resources and skilled talent to continue leading the charge, from mining critical minerals to manufacturing batteries and EVs.
