Canadian Company Mangrove Lithium Opens the First Commercial Lithium Refinery in North America

• This facility is located in Delta, British Columbia, just south of Vancouver.

• A production capacity of 1,000 tons of lithium per year should be able to supply 25,000 EVs annually.

• Mangrove Lithium also wants to open a much larger facility in Eastern Canada that could suffice for 500,000 EVs per year.

The first commercial-scale lithium refinery in North America is Canadian, as Mangrove Lithium opened its first facility in British Columbia last month.

Indeed, the company has now started refining lithium spodumene near its headquarters in Delta, B.C., just south of Vancouver.

While this refinery is still quite small, with enough capacity to refine 1,000 tons of lithium annually, able to meet the needs of only 25,000 electric vehicles per year, the company already has expansion plans.

Indeed, Mangrove Lithium is already looking to open a much bigger refinery in Eastern Canada, which should be able to supply enough lithium for 500,000 electric vehicles per year.

In addition to being based in Canada, the company is also promoting an all-Canadian supply chain by sourcing its lithium spodumene from Élévra’s mine in Québec.

While most automakers currently operating in Canada have recently gone back on their EV manufacturing plans due to American tariffs and a reduction in the demand for electric vehicles globally, Mangrove Lithium could put Canada in a good place to benefit from a possible return of the pendulum.

Indeed, if electric vehicles regain popularity in the coming years, which some signs already point to, Canada could emerge as a major supplier of lithium, alongside China. This means Canadian lithium could be used in vehicles manufactured locally, but also in the United States and Europe, as a way for automakers to be less reliant on China, which is quickly becoming their biggest competitor in the EV segment in most major automotive markets

Another reason why automakers might choose Mangrove Lithium as their supplier is sustainability, as the company claims its electrochemical refining process is cleaner than traditional chemical methods, as well as being more flexible and less expensive.

While its expansion plans might seem ambitious, Mangrove Lithium is not acting alone, as the company received conditional funding of up to $21,88 million CAD from Natural Resources Canada for the establishment of its Eastern Canada facility.

For now, no individual customers have been announced, but Mangrove Lithium already has partnerships with subsidiaries of BMW and Mitsubishi, which suggests these automakers might be among the first to use lithium refined in Canada for the batteries in their EVs and PHEVs.

Source: Automotive News Canada