CAMX Power LLC Announces Transfer of GEMX® Cathode License from Johnson Matthey to EV Metals Group
LEXINGTON, Mass., May 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CAMX Power LLC (CAMX) announces it consented to Johnson Matthey Plc (JM) transferring its GEMX® and CAM-7® cathode license to EV Metals Group Plc (EVM). JM had previously obtained the license from CAMX, practicing it in its cathode business. JM has made the license part of the sale of its cathode business to EVM.
"When JM announced its exit from this sector in November 2021, CAMX was informed that the decision was based on JM's strategic and financial considerations and that the markets had actually reacted positively to the eLNO® cathode offer. The JM press release of today confirms this, bolstered by JM’s retention of an equity interest in EV Metals (https://www.evmetalsgroup.com), and also linking eLNO to the GEMX and CAM-7 platforms" said Dr. Kenan Sahin, Founder/President of CAMX.
Johnson Matthey announces sale of Battery Materials - matthey.com which in part states:
"The sale also includes Johnson Matthey’s eLNO® technology, underpinned by the GEMX® and GEMX® cathode platforms that the company licensed from CAMX. EV Metals Group will continue to develop eLNO, building on the successful customer testing programme that Johnson Matthey had undertaken."
He continued, "Since the cathode is nearly 50% of the Lithium-ion cell cost and half of that is for metals and since EV Metals already has operations in and access to the key battery metals including Lithium, it is ideally positioned to be a competitive major supplier of the best in-class cathode material that eLNO is to the European markets where demand is extraordinarily high with key OEMs now having fully embraced EVs."
CAMX has extended its GEMX cathode platform, based on its globally patented grain boundary engineering inventions, to popular high Nickel chemistries, enhancing performance while lowering Cobalt. CAMX teams have created specific cathode products complete with precursor formulations which have been branded and include gNMC™, gNMCA™, gNCA™. With the GEMX license, EV Metals now gains immediate access to all these product families based on GEMX platform.
"EV Metal's pCAM (precursor for Cathode Active Material) business that moves Nickel and Lithium downstream, resolves precursor availability as a choke point in the supply chain. As a unique metals-to-pCAM-to-CAM supplier and with its deep financial resources, EV Metals is well poised to quickly complete and expand the cathode plants it has acquired from JM, and become a major cost-competitive cathode producer in short order." opined Sahin.
Samsung SDI and more recently LG Energy Solution are other licensees of the GEMX platform, and have already incorporated GEMX derived cathodes in some of the batteries they make. These two companies together account for 30% of global LIB sales.
Sahin concluded, "It is anticipated that EV Metals and CAMX will collaborate closely which CAMX aims to do with all its licensees as part of its technology development and transfer model. Our expectation is the JM cathode business management team will also move to EV Metals, making the transition from JM to EV Metals much easier and collaboration with CAMX more effective. We have worked with the JM team across many years and have no doubt that, with their addition to the EV Metals team, the EV Metals cathode business will be second to none."
CAMX maintains comparable development and scale-up facilities in Massachusetts including a cathode pilot plant and cell making facilities to quickly evaluate different cathode formulations in actual cells together with other components like anodes for optimal fit. All this will complement EV Metals' activities and facilities.