A Perth company is lining up to become one of the first outside of China to control its entire battery supply chain. 

A £50 million (AU$88 million) cash takeover in Britain puts Perth-based EV Metals Group on track to run its entire supply chain from mine to carmaker, following a deal with chemicals company Johnson Matthey.

EV Metals chief Michael Naylor says the company may be able to avoid a looming market crunch on raw materials, and develop one of the first independent battery supply chains outside of China.

“Our narrative has shifted in the last 12 months to talking about geopolitical alignment of supply chains,” he told reporters. 

China controls over 80 per cent of global processing capacity for battery raw materials including lithium, while Chinese offtake agreements cover most of the production of those materials around the world.

“Western economies have got to start to get the message that they’ve got to build out midstream and downstream,” Mr Naylor said.

“But equally importantly, they need to invest in the upstream integration of supply chains if they want to compete, and to develop their electric vehicle industries. So, that’s where we come into it.”

EV Metals already has interests in lithium and nickel mines in Western Australia, as well as midstream processing plants for lithium and nickel in Saudi Arabia.

It is now looking downstream, having bought Johnson Matthey’s battery tech unit. 

The acquisition should allow EV Metals to make and sell battery materials to European electric vehicle makers and their suppliers, and potentially to renewable energy producers.

EV Metals bought Johnson Matthey’s two British battery technology centres and a pilot plant, plus “a package of patents, licences, know-how and show-how for the production of both precursor cathode-active materials and cathode materials”, Mr Naylor said.

“We now have the supply chain integrated from metal in the ground right through to the delivery of the cathode-active materials to the electric vehicle manufacturer, or the battery cell manufacturer of the electric vehicle manufacturer,” he said.

“We are a global first mover with this model outside of China. No other company outside of China has that supply chain integration, and it’s fundamental to our business model.”