New Arizona factory to add $330M to economy making elements for 470K electric cars yearly – By Sarah Lapidus (Arizona Republic) / Mar 24 2023
A small town in Yuma County will be the new home of the only cobalt processing facility in North America and will bring hundreds of jobs to the county.
Evelution Energy plans to develop a solar-powered, carbon-neutral facility to process cobalt sulfate for electric vehicle batteries. Construction is expected to begin next year with completion projected in 2025 or 2026.
On March 6, the Yuma County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a special-use permit for the company to develop its facility on a 138-acre-lot in Tacna.
Cobalt is a highly sought-after mineral used in ion-lithium batteries. About 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced by the Democratic Republic of Congo. The cobalt is then sent abroad and processed into cobalt sulfate for electric vehicle batteries, with more than 70% percent of cobalt sulfate refined in China and most of the remainder processed in Finland and Indonesia.
