November 15 (SeeNews) - Slovak battery manufacturer InoBat will begin in 2025 the construction of a 32 GWh electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Serbia, the company said.
The factory will have an initial capacity of 4 GWh, the company said in a LinkedIn post on Monday.
The project is supported by International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of its strategic support for member countries in Europe to mobilise private sector investments into the green transition of their economies, InoBat said in a statement.
The total value of the project was not disclosed.
According to Serbian news portal ekapija, the Serbian government has agreed to provide a 419 million euro ($435.5 million) grant to the project.
Serbia's Jadar mine contain's one of the biggest lithium deposits in the world. Jadar, discovered by Rio Tinto geologists in 2004 near Loznica, would be capable of delivering approximately 55,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate, as well as 160,000 tonnes of boric acid and 255,000 tonnes of sodium sulfate as by-products per year. Rio Tinto planned to complete the construction of an underground mine at the Jadar lithium borate project site in 2026 which would help make the company a top 10 lithium producer.
In May 2021, Rio Tinto signed a memorandum of understanding with InoBat, outlining an intention to work together to progress the establishment of a "cradle-to-cradle" electric vehicle battery value chain in Serbia and in November that it year it said it plans to support the construction of an InoBat gigafactory in Serbia.
However, in January 2022 the Serbian government revoked Rio Tinto's licences for Jadar lithium mine project amid a wave of protests by environmentalists across the country.
InoBat established a Serbian subsidiary, InoBat Auto Beograd, in July 2021.
($ = 0.9620 euro)