Reply from Martin8 Oct 2018 15:35
With his blessing to share with you all,
Hi *****
Thank you for the question.
Indeed, we have been taking a keen interest in the Faraday initiative and I have heard several presentations from those involved at various conferences etc. It is good to see such a major commitment by the UK government. As you can read, the funding is focused on battery technology but includes “any technology or process that stimulates innovation in the manufacture, performance and supply of materials for batteries”. Commonly, hard rock lithium operations mine, process and produce a concentrate which is sold to a lithium converter (almost all in China) to produce battery grade material.
There is a strong motivation, both from an economic and security of supply point of view, to produce batteries in Europe. See FAME -http://www.fame-project.info/. Once we have completed and assessed the results from the first stage of our lithium R&D initiative we can then decided upon the next course of action and, where appropriate, possible funding options.
Kind regards
Martin
Martin Rosser BSc (Hons), ACSM, CEng, FIMMM
Chief Executive Officer