General Motors recently announced that it had signed an agreement with the Australian company Element 25 Limited in a deal that will see E25 supply GM with up to 32,500 metric tons of manganese sulfate each year at a planned processing facility to support the production of more than 1 million electric vehicles in North America annually.

Under the agreement, General Motors will loan Element 25 $85 million to partially fund the construction of a new battery-grade manganese sulfate processing facility located in Louisiana. GM said that it expects Element 25 to invest approximately $290 million to build the 230,000-square-foot venue which is expected to be the first of its kind in the United States.

Preparation of the site is expected to start during the third quarter of 2023 with operations scheduled to begin by 2025. Once completed, the new facility will reportedly create about 200 permanent jobs.

“GM is scaling EV production in North America well past 1 million units annually and our direct investments in battery raw materials, processing and components for EVs are providing certainty of supply, favorable commercial terms and thousands of new jobs, especially in the U.S., Canada and free trade agreement countries like Australia,” said Doug Parks, GM’s executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. “The facility E25 will build in Louisiana is significant because it's expected to be the first plant in the United States to produce battery-grade manganese sulfate, a key component of cathode active material which helps improve EV battery cell cost.”