On October 16, 2023, Umicore N.V. announced the construction and development of an electric vehicle (EV) battery materials manufacturing plant in Loyalist Township, Ontario. It will be nearly carbon neutral and 100% fuelled by renewable energy from the start of production. Umicore invests C$2.1 billion in the project’s initial phase in addition to the substantial financial support from the Governments of Canada and Ontario.
The first of its kind in North America, Umicore’s facility will produce cathode active materials (CAM) and precursor cathode active materials (pCAM) on a large industrial scale for EV and battery producers in Canada and the United States. In the project’s first stage, the company will create 600 new direct jobs, plus an additional 700 co-op positions for students will be created throughout the project, making Umicore one of the largest private employers in Eastern Ontario.
The full project has the potential to produce enough battery materials to support the production of over 800,000 EVs per year, utilizing Canadian critical minerals, including nickel, lithium and cobalt, and strengthening Canada’s and Ontario’s domestic EV supply chain and batteries ecosystem.
Umicore is a global circular materials technology company with an extensive expertise in the fields of material science, chemistry and metallurgy.
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP represented Umicore with a team that included Elise Beauregard, Gregory Southam, Pawel Mielcarek, Steven Willard, Jonathan Godin and Paul Capparelli (Infrastructure and Commercial Real Estate); Nicholas Williams and Caroline Ménard (Project Finance); Sarah Powell (Environment); Seann McAleese (Employment); Michael Kandev (Tax); Mark Katz (Foreign Investment); and Franziska Ruf (Corporate).