Romania will enter the map of major battery component manufacturers after signing a memorandum with a company that will build a lithium refinery, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu announced at a government briefing on Monday.
“Today I signed this memorandum on behalf of the Romanian Government. We have been working on it for over a year. I have been in contact with the company since the last Government, the Government led by Florin Cîţu, when this memorandum was approved, if I am not mistaken in October. I am very happy that Romania will be on the map of the big manufacturers of battery components, because we have to say that no battery can work without lithium. Basically these refineries, these two refineries that will be built in Europe will make this powder lithium – one in Germany, one in Romania. Lithium is an energy resource. We are not talking about lithium mining right now, to anticipate a certain question of yours about lithium mining in Romania, but we are talking about lithium brought from mines in Canada. But Romania will benefit from an investment of about 400 million euro, jobs and will be put on the map of electric battery manufacturers,” said Virgil Popescu, at the end of the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding with RockTech Lithium.
The director of the German-Canadian company RockTech Lithium, Dirk Harbecke, mentioned that the European Union will use electric cars on a large scale and for this the car industry needs to be prepared to have the necessary components. Lithium – ion batteries are essential for the European car industry. In this context, the announced investment contributes to the European Union’s efforts to ensure its independence in obtaining its automotive components from this perspective.
He said that a first production unit will be installed in Germany, on the border with Poland, and a second production unit for these components will be built in Romania. For several months now, the company’s representatives have been looking for suitable locations for this investment. The investments that the company will make in Romania will lead to the direct or indirect creation of 700 jobs, and the components will be used to equip an average of 500,000 vehicles per year.