Stellantis has agreed to invest 5 million euros in the battery metals miner in return for a near 20% stake.

Argentina's first plant for lithium batteries will begin operations in September, using metal extracted locally by US company Livent Corp.

The European Commission proposed in March that EU extraction of 16 "strategic raw materials", including lithium and copper.

Undersea mining is still illegal under international law and environmentalists rail against it for threatening ocean ecosystems with habitat damage, silt and noise.

Vulcan Energy is seeking support for the €1.5 billion project in the upper Rhine Valley that the firm hopes to bring online in 2025.

The commodities giant will sign an offtake agreement in exchange for helping to fund the lithium processing plant that Eramet is building with China’s Tsingshan.

A deal with Northvolt would underscore Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ambitions for Canada to capture a sizable piece of the North American EV supply chain.

The automaker will get 35% of future production of battery-grade nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate from Kuniko's exploration projects in Norway.