Canadian-German company to invest EUR 400 M in a lithium “refinery” in Romania

A memorandum of understanding was signed in Bucharest on Monday with the Canadian-German company RockTech Lithium, for the construction of a factory in which 400 million euros will be invested. The company has been talking to Romanian officials for several months, has visited several sites and says that the investment will lead to the creation of 500 jobs. The lithium will be brought from Canada and will be transformed into chemicals used in batteries.

The company will build “conversion capabilities”, sites where raw ore lithium is processed into a chemical widely used in the automotive industry. Although Romania has lithium reserves, it will not be used in this case, but the lithium will be brought from Canada to be processed in Romania.

Romanian Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, said that Romania has been working with this company for almost a year and refers to the refineries that will manufacture lithium powder. The first will be built in Germany, and the second in Romania. “I am very happy that Romania will be on the map of the big manufacturers of battery components, especially since no battery can work without lithium,” said the minister.

The head of the RockTech Lithium company says that there will come a time when half of the cars sold in the world will be electric, and the car industry must have the necessary components, especially lithium-ion batteries. Europe can achieve independence through these investments.

RockTech Lithium announced in February that it was planning an investment in Germany for what it called “Europe’s first lithium refining plant,” a plant that will have the capacity to produce 24,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide for batteries annually.

The factory will be located close to the Polish border.

The quantity is equivalent to the volume needed to equip 500,000 electric cars. Production in Germany is expected to start in 2024 in Germany. The Romanian factory will have a similar capacity.