The Electric: A Phosphate Mine in Canada Could Feed a Rising U.S. Battery Industry

As auto manufacturers increasingly choose lithium-iron-phosphate batteries to power their electric vehicles, a phosphate project under development in Canada marks another step in building a U.S.-led battery metals industry to compete with China’s.

The project, launched by Vancouver, British Columbia-based First Phosphate, appears to be the first mining and cathode development in North America intended specifically for LFP batteries. Chinese companies such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. currently make almost all the world’s LFP batteries, which are gradually supplanting more popular but also more expensive nickel-based batteries.