Canada will provide up to C $1 billion to Umicore to build a battery module factory

Canada and Ontario will provide up to C $1 billion to a subsidiary of Belgium's Umicore to help it build a factory to produce battery components for electric vehicles, the Canadian government said on Monday. Federal Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement that the plant, located in Loyalist Township, Ontario, will produce positive active materials and precursor positive active materials. The plant, the first of its kind in North America, will initially employ 600 people and have an annual capacity of 35 GWH of battery material.

Canada, home to a large mining industry for minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, hopes to attract companies involved at all levels of the electric vehicle supply chain with green technology worth billions of dollars. The Umicore plant will be built in phases and will be valued at $2.7 billion upon completion. Canada will invest $551.3 billion, while Ontario will invest $424.6 billion. Champagne said the entire project has the potential to produce enough battery material to support the production of more than 800,000 electric vehicles per year.