Northern, Obeikan to develop $200M Saudi battery plant
The Battery Anode Material facility in Yanbu Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, will be built through a joint venture company majority-owned (51%) by Saudi diversified industrial group Obeikan and 49% owned by Canadian company Northern Graphite Corporation.
Canadian company Northern Graphite Corporation and the Riyadh-based Obeikan Investment Group have announced that they have signed a term sheet to jointly develop and operate a large-scale Battery Anode Material facility in Yanbu Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, through a joint venture company.
The term sheet outlines the development of an approximately USD200 million BAM facility with an initial production capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year scalable over time to meet rapidly growing global demand for graphite anode materials sourced outside of China, Northern Graphite said in a news release.
The JVCo is to be majority-owned (51 percent) by Obeikan, a Saudi diversified industrial group engaged in packaging, printing, building glass, real estate and the digitalization of industrial operation processes in the Middle East and Africa, and 49 percent owned by Northern.
Construction of the facility is expected to start in 2026, with first-phase production forecast to begin in 2028. The BAM facility will be funded at the JVCo level, with Obeikan leading the organizing of local debt funding required to finance construction, development and commissioning of the Yanbu plant, the news release said. The remaining funding is to be provided as equity by the JV partners in proportion to their ownership interests and jointly through commercial banks.
“This joint venture represents a defining step in Northern’s evolution from a mining company into a fully integrated, global battery anode material producer,” said Hugues Jacquemin, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Graphite. “By partnering with Obeikan in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we are partnering with a well-financed and experienced industrial player, gaining scale, financing strength, and access to one of the world’s most strategically important industrial hubs, while accelerating the restart of our Okanjande mine in Namibia and advancing our broader mine-to-market strategy.”
“Our partnership with Northern is fully aligned with the Kingdom’s ambition to lead in advanced materials and clean energy supply chains,” said Abdallah Obeikan, Chief Executive Officer of Al Obeikan Group for Investment Company. “This partnership will combine Northern’s expertise with the industrial knowledge of Obeikan and the strength of Saudi Arabia. Together, we intend to establish a world-class BAM production hub in Yanbu that serves global battery manufacturers while strengthening the resilience of international supply chains.”
