South Carolina Plant Ready to Power the Future with 2.4 Million EVs Annually

South Carolina [US]: On Wednesday, Albemarle, a leading global Lithium supplier, announced their plans to expand the production of battery-grade material in the United States. The project includes building a $1.3 billion Lithium Hydroxide processing facility in South Carolina's Chester County. This facility is expected to produce enough Lithium Hydroxide--50,000 metric tons annually--to support domestic battery manufacturing for electric vehicles and energy storage needs. This development is part of the U.S.'s promise to create an indigenous supply chain for clean energy sources.

Albemarle Corporation, a leading producer of Lithium-ion battery components, announced their plans to open a new facility in South Carolina. This facility is expected to be able to support the manufacturing of 2.4 million electric vehicles per year - almost triple the amount sold in the US last year according to Cox Automotive data. With demand for electric vehicles rapidly increasing around the world, the company stated that it is prepared to double this original capacity if needed.

Construction of a new Lithium production facility is set to begin late 2024 pending permit approvals. Albemarle CEO Kent Masters has declared that this facility will help increase U.S.-based Lithium resources to bring us closer to our customers in North America as the supply chain is created, fuelling the clean energy revolution.

As the world turns to clean energy, the United States is working to secure its own Lithium supply chain. Currently, U.S. Lithium mines are limited to Albemarle's Silver Peak mine in Nevada and most of the processing takes place in China. President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act looks to increase the resource security of America with policies designed to bolster the domestic supply chain for clean energy - from mining Lithium on American soil to processing it into usable feedstock for batteries.

The US government is offering increased tax credits for grid battery projects, giving greater rewards to developers who use domestic materials - the exact meaning of that being determined.

Albemarle has announced its plans to reopen their Kings Mountain mine in North Carolina, despite the difficulty and time it would take to spin up operations. This could be the answer to a growing need for domestic battery production due to the Inflation Reduction Act. Many factories are deciding to build battery manufacturing bases domestically instead of relying on minerals processed in other countries like China - and with Albemarle’s new processing plant, they could provide materials to those factories.

Albemarle, a chemical corporation, is building a new factory that they are calling a "mega-flex" site. This factory will have the capacity to process multiple types of inputs, such as spodumene from hard rock mining, Lithium brine from Nevada and recycled battery materials. Last year, Albemarle was awarded a $150 million grant from the Department of Energy in order to construct a concentrator facility for preparing 350,000 metric tons of spodumene concentrate for the upcoming project.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has hailed the news as "positively electric," noting that the 1,500 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs — with average annual wages of around $93,000 — anticipated by Albemarle would be a major boon for the state. He says it will be "transformative."