Eastern Ontario will soon get a huge economic boost.
A multinational company will build a big battery materials plant in Loyalist Township just east of Napanee.
The announcement was made Wednesday.
The company, Umicore, is based in Belgium and is investing $1.5 billion to build a first of its kind cathode and precursor cathode active materials plant in Loyalist Township.
Those materials are critical to the production of EV, or electric vehicle, batteries and the plant will be a critical part of refocusing Ontario’s auto industry toward more production of electric vehicles.
At full production the plant will be able to produce battery materials for one million electric vehicles a year, which is estimated to be about 20% of electric vehicles produced by the end of the decade.
Construction is to begin in 2023 and it’s hoped the plant will begin operating in 2025. One thousand jobs will be created during construction and several hundred workers will be needed when the plans starts production.
The company will be building on about 350 acres of land.
