Australia’s EV Metals Group is purchasing Johnson Matthey’s UK battery materials business for £50 million ($63m) in cash, Kallanish reports.

Under the deal set to close this summer, JM will take a minority stake in EVM and a seat on the board of the company. The transaction includes battery technology centres in the UK and Germany, and a cathode active material (CAM) plant under construction in Poland. Labs, a pilot plant, patents, licences and 100 personnel are also part of the assets being acquired.

JM said last November it was exiting the battery materials sector to focus on core strengths, including hydrogen. The company had been trying to commercialise a range of high-nickel advanced cathode materials and planned to start mass production of its eLNO technology in 2022 with plants in Poland and Finland.

EVM’s ceo Michael Naylor says the Aussie company will continue to develop the eLNO technology along with leading nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technologies.

“We plan to be in CAM production by 2024, in advance of our large upstream and midstream capacity coming online from 2025. This will allow us to accelerate and provide battery cell chemistry that is matched to the needs of electric vehicle and battery cell manufacturers seeking transparent and geopolitically aligned supply chains,” adds Naylor.

JM’s new ceo Liam Condon attributed the company’s decision to divest its battery materials assets to insufficient returns, increased commoditisation and the need for high capital investments. However, he believes that “with EV Metals Group’s vision and capability to be a fully integrated battery chemicals business, I am very confident that they are the right owner for the Battery Materials business going forward.”

Canadian JM assets were sold to Nano One for CAD 10.25m ($8m).

EVM is fast-tracking production of high purity chemicals and CAM, building an upstream portfolio in Australia covering lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese; a midstream chemicals complex in Saudi Arabia; and downstream processing of CAM in the UK, Europe and Saudi Arabia.