GM, Element 25 Sign For Manganese Sulphate Supply To Support EV; To Add 200 Jobs

(RTTNews) - General Motors Co. (GM) announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement with mining company Element 25 to get supply of up to 32,500 metric tons of manganese sulfate annually to support the production of more than 1 million electric vehicles in North America.

Under the agreement, GM will provide a loan of $85 million to Element 25 that will partly fund the construction of a new facility in Louisiana for the production of battery-grade manganese sulfate. The facility will start in 2025. This might be the first facility of its kind in the United States.

Element 25 will produce manganese sulfate at this facility from its mining operations in Australia by processing manganese concentrate.

Element 25 expects to invest around $290 million to construct a 230,000-square-foot facility and it plans to begin operations in 2025. The facility is expected to create around 200 permanent jobs.

GM has also announced direct investments in lithium, nickel, and other commodities, as well as cathode active material or CAM and CAM precursor.

"GM and its joint venture partners are installing 160GWh of battery cell manufacturing capacity in the U.S., and its suppliers are onshoring production of permanent magnets and other EV components to North America," the company noted.

It anticipates that these initiatives are creating many jobs in the states of California, Louisiana, Nevada, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Ontario, and Quebec.

In pre-market activity, shares of GM are trading at $36.00, down 0.50% or $0.18 on the New York Stock Exchange.