Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto confirmed it has injected money into Slovakian battery manufacturer InoBat Auto, after signing a memorandum of understanding in May.

The undisclosed investment will support the completion of InoBat’s research and development centre, as well as pilot battery line in Voderady, Slovakia. The companies have previously vowed to work together to accelerate the establishment of a cradle-to-cradle EV battery value chain in Serbia, where Rio Tinto is developing a huge greenfield lithium project.

“We are delighted to be able to deepen our partnership with InoBat through our investment and look forward to benefitting from a broader perspective of the battery materials sector, as well as insights into future battery chemistries and technologies,” comments Marnie Finlayson, managing director of Rio Tinto’s battery materials business.

The miner is investing $2.4 billion in its Jadar lithium-borates project in Serbia, now expected to produce up to 58,000 tonnes/year of battery grade lithium carbonate. Rio Tinto says the project can position the company as the largest source of lithium supply in Europe for at least the next 15 years, Kallanish notes.

Jadar was previously planned to produce 55,000 t/y and is still subject to getting all the relevant approvals and licenses. Production capacity should be enough to make roughly 1 million EV batteries (60-kilowatt-hour size) per year.

InoBat is planning to build gigafactories in Europe, including in Serbia. The start-up founded in 2019 specialises in R&D, development and manufacturing of innovative batteries custom-designed to meet specific requirements of players in the automotive, commercial vehicle, motorsport and aerospace sectors.