Rio Tinto Teams With InoBat To Form Battery Manufacturing And Recycling Value Chain In Serbia

(RTTNews) - Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Plc (RTNTF, RIO, RIO.L, RTPPF) announced Tuesday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with InoBat, a European battery technology and manufacturing company.

The companies plan to work together to accelerate the establishment of a "cradle to cradle" battery manufacturing and recycling value chain in Serbia. The partnership will cover the full commodity life-cycle from mining through to recycling of lithium.

Rio Tinto noted that its Jadar project in Serbia, a greenfield lithium project in development, has the potential to produce approximately 55 thousand tonnes of battery grade lithium carbonate in Europe.

The collaboration between Jadar and InoBat will also encourage the development of a complete European lithium and electric vehicle battery value chain.

In 2020, Rio Tinto approved an investment of almost $200 million to complete the final phase of study at the Jadar project, which is expected to be finalised in 2021, with an investment decision to follow.

InoBat, with a battery research and development facility and pilot plant being developed in Slovakia, intends to scale up its future production, through gigafactories to be built in the EMEA region. InoBat expects to provide innovative energy solutions, including production and recycling of electric vehicle batteries.

Marian Bocek, Chief executive officer of InoBat Auto said, "Our unique "cradle to cradle" approach covers the whole life-cycle of batteries from mining to recycling, in order to underpin circular economy efforts and the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals."