The French state will invest 50 ‌million euros ($59.61 million) to ‌acquire a minority stake in Imerys’ ​lithium mine project in France, the minerals group said on Wednesday.

Imerys had said in late ‌October that ⁠it was in exclusive talks with a potential ⁠investor to sell a minority stake in the project, called ​Emili, for ​which the ​estimated cost has ‌risen to 1.8 billion euros from 1 billion initially.

Imerys had announced the project in 2022, with the aim of producing ‌34,000 tonnes annually ​of lithium hydroxide ​to ​go into the supply ‌chain for electric vehicle ​batteries. ​The target for starting production in 2028 was last year ​pushed ‌back to 2030.

Source: ukfinance