Dec 9, 2022

Neil WatkinsonKalgoorlie Miner Camera Icon Bjorn Zikarsky is the managing director and chief executive of Pure Battery Technologies. Credit: Neil Watkinson/Kalgoorlie Miner Share to Facebook Copy the Link Pure Battery Technologies has received a $56 million loan for the expansion of its German battery material refinery hub which uses technology the company intends to deploy at its proposed Goldfields operation. The Brisbane-based company this week said the European Investment Bank had agreed to the loan for its precursor cathode active material refinery in Hagen to ramp-up production to 15,000 tonnes annually. PBT has developed in conjunction with the University of Queensland an “environmentally friendly” processing technology for manufacturing pCAM it says can reduce emissions and costs. The company said pCAM was used in the production of advanced lithium-ion cells with nickel, manganese and cobalt chemistry for electric vehicles. PBT chief executive Bjorn Zikarsky said the loan was an important confirmation that Europe’s business and investment community could see the value of PBT’s simple, smart and clean technology. “We are bringing important technology to market and provide a solution for electric vehicle manufacturers wanting cleaner battery materials for their cars,” he said. “I am excited the EIB sees the potential of our technology for the industry and the European Union as a whole,” he said. The company is proposing to build a $460 million pCAM hub near Kalgoorlie-Boulder, with Mr Zikarsky telling the Kalgoorlie Miner in June it was “99 per cent” likely to be at the Mungari strategic industrial area in the Shire of Coolgardie. PBT this week said the feasibility study for this plant was continuing, with a flora and fauna study completed last week. The hub would initially produce 50,000 tonnes per annum of pCAM — enough to produce up to one million lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries — with first production was being targeted for mid-2024. Mr Zikarsky in June said there would be 380 direct construction jobs created, with 180 people needed to operate the plant, while a study the company had commissioned suggested there would be 1200 indirect jobs created as a result of the project. Following an Albanese Government review, a $120 million grant awarded by the previous Morrison Government was confirmed for the project in August.