Stellantis invests in Norway’s Kuniko for supply of low-carbon nickel and cobalt sulphate

Stellantis and Kuniko Ltd today announced the signing of a binding offtake term sheet agreement securing a 35% future production offtake of nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate from Kuniko’s Norwegian exploration projects for a term of nine years.

In addition, Stellantis agreed to purchase 5.0 million euros  in new equity in Kuniko, giving it a 19.99% shareholding on completion and rights to nominate one director to the Kuniko board.

“We are on an aggressive path to securing a holistic portfolio of raw materials needed to meet our Dare Forward 2030 electrification targets,” said Stellantis Chief Purchasing and Supply Chain Officer Maxime Picat. “With Kuniko, we are adding another lever to support our European battery needs with a local and environmentally conscious solution from its Norwegian projects.”

“This strategic partnership with Stellantis promotes sustainable European battery value chain solutions and validates the potential of our battery metals project portfolio in Norway,” said Antony Beckmand, Kuniko CEO. “Together with Stellantis, we eagerly anticipate working hand in hand to achieve exploration success, move towards production, and make meaningful contributions to the growth and advancement of the European battery industry.”

Funds from the equity purchase will be applied to advance Kuniko’s brownfield and greenfield battery metals exploration projects in Norway which include nickel, cobalt and copper.

As part of the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, Stellantis announced plans of reaching a 100% passenger car battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales mix in Europe and a 50% passenger car and light-duty truck BEV sales mix in the United States by 2030. Stellantis is on track to become a carbon net zero corporation, all scopes included, by 2038, with single digit percentage compensation of remaining emissions.

Stellantis is assembling a roster of partnerships to ensure a stable supply of key materials for its electrified future. In addition to Kuniko, Stellantis has agreements with Alliance Nickel, McEwen Copper, Terrafame, Vulcan Energy, Element 25 and Controlled Thermal Resources.

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