REUTERS: Chinese battery materials producer GEM Co will invest 310 million yuan (US$48 million) in a project to make 100,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade nickel and cobalt from recycling in central China’s Hubei province, it said on Tuesday.

The investment – which GEM said was being made to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party – comes as the company looks to roughly triple its annual battery precursor production to over 400,000 tonnes by 2025 to meet burgeoning demand from the electric-vehicle sector.

The project in the city of Jingmen, where GEM has an existing recycling base, will produce three battery-grade chemicals – nickel sulphate, cobalt sulphate and cobalt chloride – in equal measure, GEM said in a stock exchange filing.

The company, which is also pursuing a smelting project in Indonesia that will make battery-grade nickel and cobalt, said the Jingmen plant would take nine months to construct, with the funds to come from its own coffers and from bank loans.

(US$1 = 6.4640 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Mark Potter)

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