Rio Tinto signs deal to develop lithium supply chain across Europe

British-Australian metals and mining titan Rio Tinto has announced a lithium supply chain commercial partnership with UK-based, lithium refinery developer Green Lithium.

Green Lithium is a mineral processing company with plans to build and operate a large-scale lithium refinery in Teeside, providing lithium chemicals to the UK and EU markets.

Currently, the battery-metal supply chain is dominated by East Asia, as there is no refining capability in Europe.

Rio Tinto said in a statement that the signed memorandum of understanding with Green Litihium will build is an end-to-end battery metals supply chain in Europe "to safeguard the UK's and EU's automotive and battery manufacturing industries".

Philippe Bourdages, vice president in minerals sales at Rio Tinto called the partnership an "important step", adding: "we are looking to supply the global rollout of green battery technology to feed the significant European market demand."

Commenting on the deal, Sarah Jones, the UK's government minister for industry and decarbonisation, said the deal was "great news [...] and will not only support high-skilled jobs in the North East but boost our critical minerals supply chains as we continue to build a cleaner, greener future for our automotive industry and drive forward our mission to net zero".