By Mara Knaub | Yuma Sun
Gov. Katie Hobbs is calling the cobalt production facility to be built near Tacna a “big win” for Yuma County. The project, the first of its kind in the U.S., represents a $200 million investment.
EVelution Energy, an electric vehicle battery materials processing company, announced plans to build a solar-powered carbon neutral cobalt sulfate production facility in a qualified opportunity zone between Tacna and Dateland.
The facility will produce cobalt sulfate for EV batteries, a material crucial to America’s initiative to electrify the U.S. automotive fleet and transition to a net-zero economy, noted a press release from the Arizona Commerce Authority.
EVelution will truck in the material from the Port of Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico, and expects to produce about 33,000 metric tons of EV battery grade cobalt sulfate every year, enough to support the domestic production of 470,000 EVs each year. The product will be sold to U.S. companies that manufacture electric vehicle batteries.
