A strategic partnership has been concluded between the two parties. It aims to secure low-carbon cobalt sulphate produced in Morocco and to guarantee the traceability of the electric battery supply chain. Managem Group will supply its partner with 5,000 tonnes/year of cobalt sulphate for a period of 7 years, starting in 2025.
This is a nice blow for our mining industry. Since OCP is already a world leader, an essential operator in its field and, beyond that, in food safety, Managen is following in its footsteps and carving out a place for itself in the global chain of clean mobility. Managem is positioned on the global value chain of the electric vehicle industry. Indeed, in July 2020, the German manufacturer BMW announced that it had signed a contract with the Moroccan mining group Managem relating to the supply of cobalt for an amount of 100 million euros. With this order, the BMW Group will cover approximately one-fifth of its cobalt requirements for the fifth generation of electric batteries. The contract between BMW and the Managem group is for a period of five years (2020-2025).
More recently, last January, the mining group entered into a strategic partnership with Glencore, a global trading giant in the extraction of raw materials. It aims to produce, in Morocco, cobalt from recycled batteries within the industrial complex of Managem in Guemassa. Through this agreement, Glencore and Compagnie de Tifnout Tiranimine (CTT, a subsidiary of Managem) have expressed their intention to conclude a 5-year tolling agreement (contract work) for 1,200 tonnes of recycled cobalt per year, as well as for nickel hydroxide and lithium carbonate. Today, Groupe Renault, a major player in the automotive industry, has just announced that it has signed a sourcing agreement with Managem Group, a Moroccan player in the mining and hydrometallurgy sector. This is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which aims to secure the supply of low-carbon and responsible cobalt sulphate for electric batteries. The agreement, indicate the two parties in a joint press release, provides for the supply by Managem Group of 5,000 tons of cobalt sulphate per year for a period of 7 years, starting in 2025. After an engineering study, Managem Group plans to invest in the construction of a future plant located within the Guemassa industrial complex in Morocco in order to transform cobalt ore into cobalt sulphate.
Through this partnership, Renault Group will secure a significant supply, representing an annual battery production capacity of up to 15 GWh.
This direct cooperation between a car manufacturer and a mining player guarantees a long-term traceability system for the supply chain of cobalt for batteries. It also aims to reduce the impact on the environment, in particular thanks to the know-how of Managem Group whose energy efficiency of the installations results in the optimization of consumption and the increasing use of green energies, of which more than 80 % of wind origin. This agreement notably includes the possibility for Managem Group, Renault Group and its Alliance partners to develop potential cooperation on the supply of manganese and copper sulphate, as well as on the recycling of battery materials in short loops.
In resonance with the creation of the industrial center dedicated to the Renault ElectriCity electric vehicle, Renault Group is positioning itself as a key player in the deployment of more efficient, low-carbon and reusable batteries. The group aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its batteries by 20% by 2025 and 35% by 2030, compared to 2020. Combined with the partnership with Vulcan to secure low-carbon lithium and Terrafame for low-carbon nickel sulphate, this agreement marks a new step towards reducing the environmental footprint of electric vehicles and the group’s objective of carbon neutrality in Europe by 2040.
The signing of the agreement took place on Wednesday in the presence of Ryad Mezzour, Minister of Industry and Trade, Gianluca De Ficchy, Purchasing Director of the Alliance and Managing Director of the Alliance Purchasing Organization (APO), Imad Toumi CEO of Managem Group and Mohamed Bachiri, Managing Director Renault Group Morocco.
For the Minister of Industry, “A new stage in the strategic partnership between Morocco and Renault Group is beginning today with this agreement on the development of our mining resources to support the development of electric mobility and the deep integration of the national automotive industrial platform”. The Moroccan automotive industry, he says, is accelerating its transition to electrification with sustainable and efficient Moroccan cobalt sourcing for electric batteries. At the same time, we are working to position Morocco as a producer of electric batteries and a key player in sustainable mobility.
As for the manager of the French group, he says he is very happy to be associated with Managem Group, “recognized mining player in the preservation of resources thanks to its unique production and processing methods and to contribute in this way to the economic, social and environmental development of the automotive sector in Morocco”. This agreement, he underlines, constitutes a further step towards achieving the objective of reducing the carbon footprint of our batteries and achieving carbon neutrality for the group in Europe by 2040, and in the world of here 2050.
“The traceability and decarbonization of the raw materials of our batteries are crucial issues for electric mobility and the energy transition. We are thus ensuring a supply closer to our manufacturing ecosystem of low-carbon electric batteries in Europe”notes the head of Renault Group.
This agreement will support the development of the Moroccan automotive industry and strengthen Morocco’s position as a platform for the production and export of equipment, motor vehicles and now strategic and critical materials of Moroccan origin such as cobalt, manganese and copper for the manufacture of batteries. It is part of the commitments made by Renault Group to the Kingdom to develop the Renault ecosystem in Morocco by increasing local sourcing to 2.5 billion euros from 2025, with a target of 3 billion euros.
It should be noted that Managem Group is an active member of the Cobalt Committee of the LME (London Metal Exchange) and of the Cobalt Institute (CI). In 2019, Managem Group’s responsible cobalt production was confirmed by certification according to the standards of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI), as well as by evaluations by NQC and ECOVADIS. Managem Group recently joined the FCA (Fair Cobalt Alliance).