SYDNEY (Reuters) – The state of Western Australia will allocate land to a battery steel processing facility proposed by IGO Ltd and Wyloo Metals, which is backed by billionaire Andrew Forrest, because the nation pushes to course of extra crucial minerals at residence.

Australia, which provides almost half the world’s lithium and is a serious producer of uncommon earths, desires to maneuver up the crucial mineral worth chain to cut back the worldwide reliance on China, which dominates the sector.

The proposed facility in Western Australia, the nation’s largest mining state, can be Australia’s first to supply nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor cathode energetic materials, used to make elements for the lithium-ion batteries widespread in electrical automobiles.

The state authorities on Friday introduced it could allocate 30 hectares (74 acres) of land inside the Kwinana-Rockingham Strategic Industrial Space for the proposed plant, which is anticipated to value as much as A$1 billion ($678 million). An accompanying assertion didn’t specify the deal phrases.

IGO performing CEO Matt Dusci stated the land deal was a “crucial step” to raised combine into the battery provide chain.

“We consider the world the place Australia might be best is in mid-stream battery chemical processing,” Dusci stated in a press release.

A remaining funding resolution for the undertaking is topic to a feasibility examine, due in mid-2024, and discovering a undertaking companion with battery chemical processing expertise.

A world battery chemical producer has proven “sturdy curiosity” within the undertaking, in response to IGO’s assertion.

Western Australia, which holds a majority of the nation’s crucial mineral reserves, is on the forefront of the push to construct processing capability.

The proposed website will likely be subsequent to the Kwinana Lithium Hydroxide plant, collectively owned by IGO and China’s Tianqi Lithium Corp, which final 12 months produced the nation’s first battery-grade lithium hydroxide, a crucial enter for electric-vehicle batteries.

($1 = 1.4741 Australian {dollars})