Recharge, is an Australian lithium-ion battery company, has successfully bid to purchase Britishvolt’s planned £3.8 billlion lithium-ion factory in Northern England. Following the acquisition, Recharge has entered into an Memorandum of Understanding with Tees Valley Lithium (TVL) under which TVL has agreed to supply tolled lithium hydroxide to Recharge from its facility in Teesside. The companies will work towards a definitive offtake and supply agreement.

The two companies will also work together to jointly source lithium spodumene to be used in TVL’s refinery in Port Hedland, Western Australia for conversion to lithium suphate to be shipped to Teesside, UK for conversion into lithium hydroxide.

Recharge has sought the support of TVL to safeguard the supply of critical minerals into its UK and Australian factories. The significant offtake envisaged under the MOU enables long term planning and production forecasting and is said to strengthen Recharge’s battery offtake agreements and existing supply chain.

Recharge is backed by New York based investment firm Scale Facilitation and is currently in the process of building a gigafactory at Avalon near Geelong, Australia and is also involved in battery technology research and development.

TVL’s lithium hydroxide refinery in Teesside, UK is ‘shovel ready’ with production forecast to commence in 2025.

Recharge Founder David A. Collard said: “This MOU links two like minded companies to enable the critical mineral supply chain needed to build significant battery manufacturing capability in Australia, the US and the UK and underscores our intent to revive the fortunes of Britishvolt. We look forward to integrating lithium hydroxide from TVL into our established and high performing supply chain.”