Rock Tech Lithium has broken ground for its lithium plant in Guben, Brandenburg. The German-Canadian raw materials company is building a converter plant there to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide for use in electromobility.
Rock Tech recently received the first partial permit and will now proceed as planned with the testing work for the concrete piles and ground preparation. The Guben converter is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2025 and produce qualified battery-grade lithium hydroxide from 2026. It is the first of five converters planned by the German-Canadian company in Europe and North America.
The ground-breaking ceremony was purely symbolic because as reported in January, the company recently received approval from the responsible State Office for the Environment to start construction of its lithium converter in Guben, Brandenburg, ahead of schedule. The first major work on site has therefore already been initiated before the official ground-breaking ceremony.
According to the company, the planned total investment volume for the battery plant is around 650 million euros. Around 170 new jobs are to be created in the course of the settlement in Brandenburg. On the occasion of the ground-breaking ceremony, Brandenburg’s Minister President Dietmar Woidke commented accordingly: “I am very pleased that we have attracted Rock Tech, a visionary cleantech company, which brings us closer to our goal of becoming a hub of modern industry, sustainable mobility, and high technology. With this groundbreaking, Brandenburg is taking another important step towards becoming a highly prosperous and climate-neutral growth cluster.” 