London-listed lithium chemicals start-up Green Lithium confirmed on Monday it will build its UK lithium refinery at PD Ports in Teesside, northeast UK, Kallanish reports.

The facility is planned to produce 50,000 tonnes/year of low-carbon battery-grade lithium chemicals, with first production slated for 2025. Construction is expected to take three years, during which over 1,000 jobs should be created. Once in operation, the refinery is set to employ 250 full-time, high-skilled personnel.

The estimated £600 million ($687m) project, touted as the UK’s first large-scale lithium refinery, has received £600,000 in government funding through the Automotive Transformation Fund. Its importance, however, isn’t limited to the UK domestic market. Green Lithium says it’s seizing the opportunity presented by Europe’s future high demand and potential supply uncertainty in the Chinese market to target local battery and EV industries in the UK and EU.

“There is currently no lithium refining capability in Europe; localised lithium refining is urgently required to meet the exponential growth of European demand and protect against uncertainty from precarious international supply chains,” comments Green Lithium’s ceo Sean Sargent. “Without localised supply, Europe’s battery, energy storage and automotive sectors will fail.”

The plant should enable production of roughly 1m EVs in the European market, before an increased scope of over 15m by 2030. Yet, Green Lithium’s ambitions go beyond localisation matters, and it wants “to set the global lithium refining bar higher than anyone else."

The company claims its refined product will have a carbon intensity of 3.3 kilograms of CO2 per kg of lithium hydroxide produced, compared to a current industry average of 16.2 kg CO2. The 80% lower carbon footprint is to be delivered by using a non-acid leach process flowsheet, with zero liquid discharge and no sulphates in its output; renewable electricity; and the use of hydrogen gas to run the refining plant with a carbon capture system.

The announcement was welcomed by Green Lithium’s investor Trafigura, which will help the company to source feedstock and market production of lithium hydroxide, as well as the UK government. The latter says the project will help level up, while allowing the country “to move quickly to secure our supply chains of critical minerals” in order to prevent potential supply disruptions which could delay the rollout of EVs in the UK.

PD Ports also said to be delighted that Teesport was chosen as the base for this project, “which holds such national importance.”

It’s unclear whether Green Lithium will benefit from Teesside’s freeport status and its tax or customs incentive zones.