Lithium Battery Valley emerges in Quebec – by Shane Lasley (Metal Tech News – March 16, 2022)

https://www.metaltechnews.com/

Becancour, a small Quebec town along the shores of the St. Lawrence River about midway between Montreal and Quebec City, is rapidly emerging as an epicenter for producing the advanced materials needed for lithium-ion batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution.

This rural Canadian town of around 12,800 people surfaced in the battery space about a year ago when Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. announced plans to build a facility there to produce the coated spherical purified graphite that goes into the anodes of lithium-ion batteries. Now, General Motors, POSCO Chemical, and BASF are setting up shop to produce cathode active materials and lithium battery recycling in this strategic Quebec locale.

What makes Becancour such a popular destination for some of the biggest names in North America’s burgeoning lithium-ion battery sector?

BASF, which recently acquired a large parcel of land to set up shop in Becancour, says the small city offers the ideal combination of highly efficient logistics for delivering battery materials to both North America and Europe and has ready access to hydroelectricity that will lower the carbon footprint of products produced there, an advantage that can be passed on to the battery and EV sectors.

Becancour also happens to be in an area of eastern Canada that is rich in the minerals and metals needed for battery material manufacturing, which is why Nouveau Monde blazed the advanced battery materials trail to this municipality about 100 miles (165 kilometers) from the innovative company’s Matawinie graphite mine project.

For the rest of this article: https://www.metaltechnews.com/story/2022/03/16/tech-metals/lithium-battery-valley-emerges-in-quebec/882.html