Altech Chemicals (ASX: ATC) has exercised its option to purchase a site in Germany’s Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park for its proposed high purity alumina (HPA) battery material coating plant.
The company’s 75%-owned German subsidiary Altech Industries purchased the 14 hectare site, which is within north-eastern Saxony’s municipality of Spreetal.
Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park is “well serviced” by existing infrastructure, including electricity, gas, rail and road.
The park is also only 120km from Berlin and 78km from Dresden.
Altech noted the area is considered Europe’s “new automotive nucleus”, where there are existing production sites for Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche, Daimler and Tesla.
There are also a number of “key resource and technology players” within the lithium-ion battery chain.
Additionally, Altech pointed out the region is a “leading engineering training ground” with “excellent research facilities”, including the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano-systems, which is focused on ceramic HPA nano technology in energy storage.
Battery material coating plant attracts German media
As part of the purchase, an official land handover ceremony was undertaken at the park with attendees including Saxony State Minister for Development Thomas Schmidt; Mayor of Spreetal, Saxony, Manfred Peine; and Lady Major of Spremberg, Brandenburg Christine Herntier.
As well as the German officials, board members from Altech’s subsidiary Altech Advanced Materials (AAM) were present, along with several other political and industrial dignitaries.
According to Altech, the ceremony and information about the proposed 10,000 tonne per annum battery material coating plant attracted “wide German print and television media coverage”.
Altech has already secured memorandum of understanding agreements with two suppliers, which will provide uncoated graphite anode material and silicon anode material for the plant.
The anode materials will be coated using Altech’s HPA and technology and supplied to battery makers on Germany’s doorstep.
HPA will be produced at Altech’s proposed plant in Malaysia, which is expected to produce about 4,500t of the 99.99% pure material.
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