The boss of Mercedes-Benz is positioning his company to get spending on battery minerals mines.

“We have fundamentally made the decision that if a deep sourcing opportunity presents itself down to the mine, we are able and willing to allocate capital to that,” Chief Executive Ola Kaellenius told an ESG conference recently.

“For Mercedes-Benz, the shift towards electric mobility also means a change in our supply chains. Three goals are central to us: Sustainability, raw materials security and localisation of procurement,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Chief Technology Officer, Development & Procurement said.

The German automaker and Canadian Rock Tech recently announced a partnership that would bring a major lithium processing plant close to local manufacturing operations.

The agreement will supply around 150,000 fully electric vehicles for Mercedez-Benz operations.

This week, a groundbreaking in Guben, Germany took place.

“Today’s groundbreaking in Guben is therefore another milestone for Mercedes-Benz towards the sustainable production of state-of-the-art batteries. When it comes to our lithium supply here in Europe, Rock Tech will play a key role for Mercedes-Benz in the future.”

Mercedes-Benz and Rock Tech’s strategic partnership was revealed during the German-Canadian summit held in August 2022 in Toronto. The partnership followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Mercedes-Benz AG and Canada. This MOU paved the way for deeper collaboration between the two companies across all aspects of the automotive value chain, with a particular focus on the development of natural resources.