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focus","saudi-arabia-backs-lithium-startups-as-it-sharpens-upstream-focus","article/saudi-arabia-backs-lithium-startups-as-it-sharpens-upstream-focus",{"_uid":547,"date":548,"tags":549,"editor":559,"content":569,"excerpt":740,"featured":50,"reporter":741,"_editable":745,"component":746,"seo_title":543,"categories":747,"visibility":756,"author_company":49,"featured_image":757,"seo_description":740,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":763,"formattedArticleDate":764},"79221e18-fe78-4a64-9217-7cf222029ea6","2023-10-04 00:00",[550,553,556],{"slug":551,"name":552},"africa","Africa",{"slug":554,"name":555},"saudi-arabia","Saudi Arabia",{"slug":557,"name":558},"usa","USA",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562,"content":563},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":564,"image":565,"bio":567,"linkedin":568},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":566},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":570,"content":571},"doc",[572,586,591,596,617,622,635,638,643,648,653,660,665,670,675,680,685,690,695,700,705,710,715,720,725,730,735],{"type":573,"attrs":574,"content":575},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[576,584],{"text":555,"type":577,"marks":578},"text",[579],{"type":580,"attrs":581},"link",{"href":582,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":583},"https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj80IW7sNyBAxV4SkEAHXsTBpoQFnoECBIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsource.benchmarkminerals.com%2Farticle%2Ffrom-oil-to-lithium-how-saudi-arabia-is-building-a-battery-supply-chain&usg=AOvVaw0kZL-3MWhWNwkh-9v3EjGp&opi=89978449","url",{"text":585,"type":577}," is moving further upstream in the battery supply chain, investing in two lithium companies over the past month, as the country emerges as a major capital allocator in the sector.",{"type":573,"attrs":587,"content":588},{"textAlign":49},[589],{"text":590,"type":577},"Last month, Saudi investment firm Energy Capital Group invested an undisclosed sum into US lithium metal battery startup Pure Lithium, which says it has developed a process for making lithium metal electrodes.",{"type":573,"attrs":592,"content":593},{"textAlign":49},[594],{"text":595,"type":577},"In a separate September deal, Saudi state-owned National Lithium Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australian miner Abyssinian Metals, which is developing the Kenticha project in southern Ethiopia. ",{"type":573,"attrs":597,"content":598},{"textAlign":49},[599,601,607,609,615],{"text":600,"type":577},"The deals came just over a month after Saudi Arabia bought a 10% stake in Brazilian miner Vale’s nickel and copper unit for ",{"text":602,"type":577,"marks":603},"$3.5 billion",[604],{"type":580,"attrs":605},{"href":606,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":583},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/saudi-arabia-enters-nickel-and-copper-mining-through-vale-deal-lithium-could-be-next",{"text":608,"type":577},", its first ever battery mining investment. In June Australian startup European Lithium and Saudi Arabia’s Obeikan Investment Group also announced an agreement to build and operate a",{"text":610,"type":577,"marks":611}," lithium hydroxide",[612],{"type":580,"attrs":613},{"href":614,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":583},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/lithium/reports/",{"text":616,"type":577}," refinery in Saudi Arabia.",{"type":573,"attrs":618,"content":619},{"textAlign":49},[620],{"text":621,"type":577},"“I expect Saudi’s battery supply chain to rapidly build out over the next decade. Undoubtedly, all the major agencies and companies in Saudi are pushing to ensure security of supply,” said Benchmark consultant Ahmed Mehdi.",{"type":573,"attrs":623,"content":624},{"textAlign":49},[625,627,633],{"text":626,"type":577},"Saudi Arabia ",{"text":628,"type":577,"marks":629},"accelerated",[630],{"type":580,"attrs":631},{"href":632,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":583},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/from-oil-to-lithium-how-saudi-arabia-is-building-a-battery-supply-chain",{"text":634,"type":577}," its entry into the lithium ion sector this year, investing around $13 billion across the battery value chain between January and September 2023.",{"type":573,"attrs":636,"content":637},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":573,"attrs":639,"content":640},{"textAlign":49},[641],{"text":642,"type":577},"These investments are designed to support the Saudi production target of 500,000 EVs a year by 2030, part of its longer term strategy to reduce the share of non-oil exports in its GDP under the government’s Vision 2030 economic reform programme. ",{"type":573,"attrs":644,"content":645},{"textAlign":49},[646],{"text":647,"type":577},"Yet Saudi Arabia’s entry into lithium ion raw materials serves geostrategic ambitions as much as a national economic agenda, with reports emerging that its government is in talks with the US over a $15 billion global battery mining venture centred on Africa.",{"type":573,"attrs":649,"content":650},{"textAlign":49},[651],{"text":652,"type":577},"Oman is another Middle Eastern oil power entering lithium ion to diversify its fossil-dependent economy. On September 6, the country’s sovereign wealth fund announced it will buy a minority stake in Our Next Energy, a US cell maker specialising in lithium iron phosphate (LFP). It is the fund’s third lithium ion investment in the last year.",{"type":654,"attrs":655,"content":657},"heading",{"level":656,"textAlign":49},4,[658],{"text":659,"type":577},"Saudi Arabia sustains midstream investments",{"type":573,"attrs":661,"content":662},{"textAlign":49},[663],{"text":664,"type":577},"Saudi Arabia’s investment into US startup Pure Lithium shows the Kingdom is not averse to backing next-generation battery technologies.",{"type":573,"attrs":666,"content":667},{"textAlign":49},[668],{"text":669,"type":577},"Pure Lithium has developed a way of using waste feedstock to make pure lithium metal electrodes, components for lithium metal batteries that offer higher energy density than lithium ion but are not yet widely available.",{"type":573,"attrs":671,"content":672},{"textAlign":49},[673],{"text":674,"type":577},"“This investment into Pure Lithium shows Saudi Arabia’s blended approach towards lithium ion investments: both venture financing of startups like these and investments into established firms,” noted Ahmed Medhi.",{"type":573,"attrs":676,"content":677},{"textAlign":49},[678],{"text":679,"type":577},"Difficulties sourcing enough ultra-high purity lithium metals pose barriers to commercialisation but Pure Lithium intends to source low-cost lithium salts from oilfield brines, a byproduct of the petroleum industry. ",{"type":573,"attrs":681,"content":682},{"textAlign":49},[683],{"text":684,"type":577},"Through its new partnership with Saudi Arabia, the company aims to establish a brine-to-battery production chain. If successfully scaled, the method could open a stock of lithium within Saudi Arabia itself, diversifying the Kingdom’s raw material sources and ensuring greater supply security for its EV industry. ",{"type":573,"attrs":686,"content":687},{"textAlign":49},[688],{"text":689,"type":577},"More downstream Saudi investments are in the works as the government strives to build out a complete battery supply chain. It is searching for a technical partner for the country’s first cell factory, aiming for an annual capacity of between 15 and 20 gigawatt hours (GWh).",{"type":654,"attrs":691,"content":692},{"level":656,"textAlign":49},[693],{"text":694,"type":577},"Raw materials for Saudi Arabian EVs",{"type":573,"attrs":696,"content":697},{"textAlign":49},[698],{"text":699,"type":577},"The lithium MoU between Abyssinian Metals Limited and National Lithium Company is to be replaced by binding agreements that would increase the Saudi investment from an initial $1 million to $10 million. On top of this, a further equity investment from National Lithium Company would secure it with a 19.9% stake in the miner once it goes public.",{"type":573,"attrs":701,"content":702},{"textAlign":49},[703],{"text":704,"type":577},"The new binding agreements would also commit Abyssinian to delivering an unspecified volume of prepaid spodumene concentrate for Saudi Arabia’s domestic lithium processing pipeline, which currently consists of two planned hydroxide facilities that forecast to together produce 18,050 tonnes LCE of material by 2032, according to Benchmark data. ",{"type":573,"attrs":706,"content":707},{"textAlign":49},[708],{"text":709,"type":577},"Security of lithium supply is crucial for building Saudi Arabia’s domestic chemicals-to-EV manufacturing supply chain, a goal that came into closer view on September 28 when majority Saudi-owned EV producer Lucid Motors announced it had opened the country’s first EV plant in Jeddah. Saudi EV brand Ceer is constructing another.",{"type":573,"attrs":711,"content":712},{"textAlign":49},[713],{"text":714,"type":577},"Abyssinian Metals Limited’s Kenticha pegmatite project, scheduled to come online from late 2023, is due to produce 9,025 LCE tonnes of lithium by 2030, according to Benchmark data. Saudi Arabia’s forecast lithium demand in 2030 is between 25 to 30 kilotonnes LCE.",{"type":654,"attrs":716,"content":717},{"level":656,"textAlign":49},[718],{"text":719,"type":577},"Saudi Arabia strengthens US ties",{"type":573,"attrs":721,"content":722},{"textAlign":49},[723],{"text":724,"type":577},"With global lithium deficits due from 2028, control over battery mining capacity has become a focal point for geopolitical rivalries between the West and China. ",{"type":573,"attrs":726,"content":727},{"textAlign":49},[728],{"text":729,"type":577},"This geostrategic component of Saudi mining ventures came to the fore after the Wall Street Journal reported Saudi Arabia is in talks with the US to develop energy transition mining assets in Africa, a collaboration that would grant US firms buying rights to some of the output. ",{"type":573,"attrs":731,"content":732},{"textAlign":49},[733],{"text":734,"type":577},"Africa is becoming a new site of resource competition between China and the West with producers jostling to develop projects there. The continent’s share of global lithium supply will increase from 1% to 12% between 2022 and 2033, according to Benchmark data. ",{"type":573,"attrs":736,"content":737},{"textAlign":49},[738],{"text":739,"type":577},"Within this context, Saudi Arabia’s push into battery mining aims to maintain the geopolitical standing it has built on the back petroleum exports even while it diversifies economically. ","Saudi Arabia is moving further upstream in the battery supply chain, investing in two lithium companies over the past month, as the country emerges as a major capital allocator in the sector. Last month, Saudi investment firm Energy Capital Group invested an undisclosed sum into US lithium metal battery startup Pure Lithium, which says it […]",[742],{"slug":561,"name":562,"content":743},{"job_title":564,"image":744,"bio":567,"linkedin":568},{"filename":566},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"79221e18-fe78-4a64-9217-7cf222029ea6\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[748,751,754],{"slug":749,"name":750},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":752,"name":753},"geopolitics","Geopolitics",{"slug":755,"name":8},"lithium","private",{"id":49,"alt":758,"name":759,"focus":759,"title":758,"source":759,"filename":760,"copyright":759,"fieldtype":761,"meta_data":762,"is_external_url":51},"Plug in a modern electric car with flag of saudi arabia. conceptual animation 3D rendering","","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/e2bd99442c/bm-shutterstock-1918544507.jpg","asset",{"alt":758,"title":758,"source":759,"copyright":759},"Oct 04, 2023","4th October 2023",[],[],1784220826121]