The reality is simple: Lithium-ion batteries have been susceptible to fire and explosions and have even malfunctioned in certain temperatures — all critical issues that must be solved to ensure long-term sustainability.
The CERENERGY® project is being developed by Altech Batteries GmbH (ABG) with 75 percent interest and joint venture partner Fraunhofer IKTS with 25 percent interest. ABG is 75 percent owned by Altech Batteries and Altech Advanced Materials AG (FSE:AMA).
Altech is moving forward to obtain sales offtake for the project and sourcing funding to construct the plant.
Altech Batteries and Fraunhofer IKTS are currently commercialising the Sodium-Chloride Solid State (SCSS) battery technology, which uses sodium over lithium. It is a solution geared toward the renewable energy grid storage market, an often overlooked but significant market for the transition to renewable energy.
Altech Batteries has purchased the land in Saxony, Germany, for its 8,000-tpa proprietary Silumina AnodesTM battery materials plant. The plant has a completed pre-feasibility study with outstanding economics. The company strategically selected the plant’s location to serve the European battery market. The pilot plant will be built adjacent to the land.
Luke Frederick Atkins is a lawyer by profession and one of the founders of the company. Atkins brings to the board extensive experience in the areas of mining, exploration and corporate governance. Atkins is also non-executive director of the successful ASX-listed mining and exploration company, Bauxite Resources (BRL) (now Australian Silica Quartz). Atkins formerly held the role of executive chairman of BRL after co-founding the company in 2007. He has played a key role in BRL third party negotiations to successfully access funding, joint venture partnerships, land and infrastructure. Atkins has had extensive experience in capital raising and has held some executive and non-executive directorships of private and publicly listed companies including several mining and exploration companies.
Iggy Tan is a highly experienced mining and chemical executive with several significant achievements in commercial mining projects such as capital raising, funding, construction, start-ups and operations. Tan has over 30 years of chemical and mining experience and has been an executive director of some ASX-listed companies. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern Cross, a Bachelor of Science from the University of Western Australia, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Tan is responsible for managing and implementing the next stage of Altech’s strategic business objectives. Having been involved in the commissioning and start-up of seven resource projects in Australia and overseas, including high-purity technology projects, Tan is an accomplished project builder and developer.
He was the managing director of Nickelore, Galaxy Resources and Kogi Iron. At Galaxy, Tan was responsible for capital raising, construction and start-up of the company’s Mt Cattlin spodumene mine ($80 million) and the Jiangsu lithium carbonate plant ($100 million), which resulted in Galaxy becoming the world’s leading producer of high-purity lithium carbonate. The Jiangsu plant was eventually sold for $260 million in 2014.
Uwe Ahrens is the executive director of Melewar Industrial Group Berhad and managing director of Melewar Integrated Engineering Sdn Bhd. He is also on the board of other private limited companies. Ahrens holds masters in both mechanical engineering and business administration from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. Upon graduation, Ahrens joined the international engineering and industrial plant supplier, KOCH Transporttechnik GmbH in Germany, now part of FLSmidth Group, where he held a senior management position for 12 years, working mainly in Germany, the USA and South Africa.
In 1997, Ahrens was the general manager of KOCH in South East Asia and became its managing director in 1999. He joined Melewar Group in 2002 and is also currently chief technical officer of the Melewar group of companies responsible for engineering, upgrading, modification and extension of machinery and plant, as well as the overall maintenance.
Martin Stein is a finance and corporate executive with over 20 years of international experience. Stein has been the chief financial officer and company secretary for several ASX-listed companies. In these roles, he was responsible for all aspects of capital raising, financial management, shareholder liaison and corporate governance.
Before this, Stein held senior positions with Anvil Mining as well as with PwC at its London office. Whilst with PwC, he provided corporate services for companies listed on the LSE, NYSE and AIM, including Colgate-Palmolive, Sony, Heinz, DHL Express and Bosch.
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