Industry Minister Chris McDonald has hailed Billingham as the future lithium refining capital of the UK, as Tees Valley Lithium advances plans for one of Europe's most important lithium processing centres in his Stockton North constituency.
Tees Valley Lithium is developing a refinery at the Billingham Chemical Complex. Its first phase, a £185 million development, is designed to produce 25,000 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, enough for more than 550,000 electric vehicles a year, with plans to scale up to more than 100,000 tonnes.
Chris McDonald: 'This is reindustrialisation'
"This is reindustrialisation," Chris McDonald said. "Billingham is set to become the lithium refining capital of the UK and one of the most important centres for lithium processing in Europe."
The project received an offer in principle of up to £18.3 million in September through the Government's DRIVE35 programme, which supports the UK's automotive and battery supply chain. The offer is subject to due diligence and a final grant agreement.
Building a domestic supply chain
The company says the first phase alone would deliver nearly half of the domestic lithium refining capacity the Critical Minerals Strategy targets for 2035. It has a binding offtake agreement with Glencore, will use process technology from Veolia, and this week announced a qualification and validation centre at Billingham so customers can test representative product while the main refinery is built.
Chris McDonald has previously said that backing new opportunities such as lithium refining, alongside the steel, chemicals and ceramics industries and carbon capture, will create the skilled, well-paid jobs young people on Teesside deserve.
