Piedmont Lithium officials announced Thursday that the company would invest $582 million to establish a lithium hydroxide processing, refining, and manufacturing facility in Etowah.
The new facility will be located at the North Etowah Industrial Park, creating 117 new jobs in McMinn County. According to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD), the facility will be America’s largest “lithium hydroxide processing” facility.
.@PiedmontLithium will invest nearly $600M to establish manufacturing operations in Southeast Tennessee.
Thanks to Piedmont, McMinn County will see the creation of 100+ new jobs as the company locates on a Select Tennessee Certified Site in Etowah. https://t.co/nNWyk7tQFT pic.twitter.com/yUuiJDKkev
— TNECD (@TNECD) September 1, 2022
“We are excited to announce the site of our newest project and partnership with the City of Etowah, McMinn County and the State of Tennessee as we advance our strategic goal of becoming a leading lithium supplier to the U.S. We are humbled by the warm welcome we have received from our new partners, and we look forward to making Piedmont an integral part of the Etowah and McMinn County communities as we develop Tennessee Lithium together for our mutual success,” Keith Phillips, CEO and president of Piedmont Lithium, said in a statement.
Piedmont is a battery-grade lithium hydroxide producer. Lithium hydroxide is a critical component in the supply chain for electric vehicle and battery storage markets.
“Piedmont’s Tennessee Lithium project will support energy security in the U.S. and the transition to a clean energy economy in North America,” according to a TNECD press release.
The company’s new plant in Etowah will utilize “more environmentally responsible and economic processing technology, supporting Piedmont’s objective of becoming a large, low-cost, sustainable producer of lithium products,” TNECD notes.
The company’s Etowah plant will produce 30,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium annually.
Yesterday was a big day in McMinn County. 👏 @PiedmontLithium announced that it will build the nation's largest lithium hydroxide processing facility in Etowah, which will produce 30,000 metric tons of much-needed battery grade lithium per year. #MasteredinTN pic.twitter.com/dda6QDh5Ki
— TNECD (@TNECD) September 2, 2022
“Companies like Piedmont choose to call Tennessee home because of our unmatched workforce and strong business climate,” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said in a statement. “I thank this company for its investment in McMinn County and commitment to create nearly 120 manufacturing jobs for Tennesseans.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Piedmont Lithium Announcement” by TNECD.
What will the lithium production do to our soil and water?
I am chagrined that TN has agreed to this. Poisoning our beautiful state is not worth any amount of money. But then it is always about the money!
How much lithium manufacturing by-product will end up in the ground water and rivers? Was Tennessee chosen because the company considers it expendable? Kalifornia will have the greatest need for electric vehicles. How about building your plant there? Oh yeah, their environmental laws would make the cost prohibitive..
Sorry to bust this business bubble but EV’s are not the environmental green “cure” that the government and big tech want us to believe. Lithium mining, processing, manufacturing and disposal is a dirty and toxic business. And how do we produce the electricity needed to “fuel” these batteries? And who’s going to pay to clean up the land and water?
“Lithium extraction harms the soil and causes air contamination. In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, residents believe that lithium operations contaminated streams used by humans and livestock and for crop irrigation. In Chile, the landscape is marred by mountains of discarded salt and canals filled with contaminated water with an unnatural blue hue. According to Guillermo Gonzalez, a lithium battery expert from the University of Chile, “This isn’t a green solution – it’s not a solution at all.”
“Extracting lithium from beneath Earth’s surface requires a significant quantity of freshwater. Exploiting water for mining practices minimizes the available drinking sources on the surface, increasing global dehydration rates. Mineworkers pump the water into a hole in a salt flat, pumping up mineral-rich brine.
“The professionals collect lithium, borax, manganese and potassium from the brine. Unfortunately, the open hole can allow additional toxic elements to surface, polluting the local ecosystem.”
“Additionally, manufacturing lithium-ion batteries produce pollution. In the U.S., nearly 23% of emissions derive from the industrial sector. Manufacturing facilities run on fossil fuels, causing the enhanced greenhouse effect.”
https://environment.co/the-environmental-impact-of-electric-car-batteries/
And who mines that lithium…….CHILDREN in poor 3rd world countries and now TN is party to child slave labor. Will people truly do anything for money?? It appears that way. Electric cars and all the resources needed to make, maintain and charge them are much more devastating to the environment than gas powered cars. What people do not understand is there is no war against fossil fuels. The globalists and fake environmentalists KNOW human activity has no bearing on climate. The war is against mobility. As they take away your gas driven cars electric cars are just the smoke screen they offer to keep us compliant but once complete and once there are no more gas powered cars electric cars will not be an option either. WAKE THE HECK UP. Anyone that buys an electric car is supporting your own demise, damaging the environment and supporting child slave labor.
How much did this cost Tennessee taxpayers? Come on. “fess up.