The US will give concessions for 2,800 million dollars to mining companies to produce batteries for electric cars

The Government of the United States announced this Wednesday the granting of 2,800 million dollars in subsidies to boost the national production of batteries for electric vehicles and the minerals used to make them, as part of an attempt to cut off the country from receiving Chinese supplies.

Albemarle Corp is one of 20 manufacturing and processing companies to receive grants from the Department of Energy to mine lithium, graphite and nickel domestically, build the first large-scale lithium processing facility in the United States, build cathode manufacturing facilities and other battery parts and expand their recycling.

The grants, which are earmarked for projects in at least 12 statesare the last impulse of the Government of the president Joe Biden to help reduce the country’s dependence on China and other countries for components of the green energy revolution.

“As the world moves from a fossil fuel-based economy to a clean energy economy, we cannot trade oil dependency from autocrats like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin for essential minerals dependency from China,” said a senior government official when briefing journalists on the program.

The recipients of the funds, previously reported by Reuters, were chosen by a White House steering committee and coordinated by the Energy Department with support from the Interior Department.

The funds will be distributed among a series of companies, some of which could self-finance their projects and others will see the grants as a financial lifeline to continue expanding their plans in the United States. However, the funds do not alleviate the authorization problems faced by some mining companies.

Albemarle is set to receive $149.7 million to build a facility in North Carolina to process lithium-bearing rock from a mine it is trying to reopen.

The facility would power another plant somewhere in the southeast that the company said in June would produce as much lithium for electric vehicle batteries as the entire company produces today.

albemarle, that also produces lithium in Australia and Chilesaid the grant “increases the processing speed of lithium and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from long-distance transportation of raw minerals.”