(Alliance News) - Stellantis NV and Kuniko Ltd announced Friday the signing of a binding purchase agreement to secure the supply of 35 percent of cobalt nickel sulfate from Kuniko's nine-year exploration projects in Norway for future production.

In addition, Stellantis reached an agreement to purchase EUR5.0 million of new shares in Kuniko, resulting in a final stake of 19.99 percent and the right to appoint a member of Kuniko's board of directors.

"We are embarking on an ambitious path to secure a wide range of raw materials needed to meet the targets on electrification in the Dare Forward 2030 plan," said Maxime Picat, Chief Purchasing and Supply Chain Officer at Stellantis.

"With Kuniko, we are adding another lever to support our battery needs in Europe, thanks to an extremely environmentally conscious local solution from the company's Norwegian projects."

"This strategic partnership with Stellantis promotes solutions for a sustainable value chain for batteries in Europe and strengthens the potential of our portfolio of battery metals projects in Norway," explained Antony Beckmand, CEO of Kuniko. "We are excited to partner with Stellantis to achieve success in exploration, drive production into the future, and make significant contributions to growth and advancement in the battery industry in Europe.

Funds from the share purchase will be used to enable the advancement of exploration projects on metals for Kuniko's greenfield and brownfield batteries, which include nickel, cobalt, copper.

The company is building a network 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.

Stellantis' stock is up 0.6 percent at EUR16.11 per share.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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