Global specialty minerals company ICL has celebrated the ground-breaking of its battery materials manufacturing plant in St Louis, Missouri, which is expected to be the first large-scale lithium iron phosphate (LFP) facility in the country. The US$400m facility – estimated to be fully operational by 2025 – will help the electric vehicle, energy storage and clean-energy industries meet demand for battery materials produced and sourced in the USA.
Located at ICL’s existing Carondelet campus in St Louis, the 140,000ft2 facility is expected to produce 30,000 metric tons of LFP, while serving as the foundation for ICL’s global battery materials business.
St Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies will serve as the general contractor for the project. ICL will partner with Aleees to establish a localized, integrated and sustainable LFP supply chain for US-based customers.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is providing historic funding that will bring down energy costs for electric vehicles, create good jobs and keep the US on the cutting edge,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. “The momentous ground-breaking of ICL’s battery materials manufacturing facility in St Louis is part of a manufacturing renaissance to build our country’s supply chain for these clean energy products.”
“ICL is excited to be building the first North American, commercial-scale plant for this critical component required by the energy-storage, mobility and infrastructure end-markets, and we’re proud to make this investment in St Louis and to create more than 150 high-paying union and professional positions in our hometown,” said Phil Brown, president of the company’s Phosphate Division and managing director of North America for ICL. “We’re excited about the demand we are already seeing for this capacity and are looking forward to moving into this new business.”
ICL’s investment into the new facility was augmented by a US$197m grant from the US Department of Energy.