Arizona facility to process cobalt, a critical mineral for tech, is about to launch
Sarah Lapidus- EVelution Energy plans to build the first US cobalt processing facility in Yuma County by the end of 2025.
- Cobalt is crucial for various industries, including electric vehicles, aerospace and defense, and the facility could supply 30% of US demand.
A cobalt processing facility that would boost the U.S. supply of the critical mineral is on track to begin construction in late 2025.
Once built, the facility in Yuma County would be the only cobalt processing facility in the U.S.
Cobalt is a mineral in high demand for its use in electric vehicle batteries, aerospace products and defense technologies.
EVelution Energy is the company developing the project, which will be located in Wellton in Yuma County, near the California state line. The company says it plans to design and operate a carbon-neutral solar power facility that would treat and recycle 70% of its water and transport its tailings, waste byproducts of the processed ore, to the local landfill to minimize the risk of contamination on the property and surrounding land.
“Our plant is basically a best-in-class green facility … That’s why we got unanimous approval from the Yuma County Board of Supervisors because we addressed all the concerns of the stakeholders,” said Gil Michel-Garcia, the co-founder, executive vice president and general counsel of EVelution Energy.
Since the project was unanimously approved by the Yuma County Board of Supervisors in 2023, the company has secured $200 million in long-term financing through the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a federal agency that provides loans, guarantees and insurance to domestic companies.
EVelution Energy is now looking to raise the rest of the funds through federal programs. This includes a $64.8 million debt financing through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which allows investors to apply for a green card by investing in U.S. companies located in rural or high-unemployment areas. The company is also looking at raising $57.5 million under the Qualified Opportunity Zone program, which provides tax incentives to U.S. investors who invest in economically depressed areas.
Why cobalt?
Cobalt is a critical mineral, considered essential to the economy and national security, which could be vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions.
“It’s absolutely crucial for high heat-resistant parts that are contained in almost every military application, aerospace and defense application you can think of,” Michel-Garcia said about the use of cobalt. “From the inside of engines to the covering of the supersonic missiles, to stealth bombers, to radar targeting systems, to permanent magnets, all of them contain cobalt metal in some form or another.”
EVelution Energy founders said the company was being considered to help supply the U.S. reserve of critical minerals. At full capacity, the company said the Yuma facility would be capable of supplying 30% of U.S. demand.
About 75% of the world’s cobalt is produced by the Democratic Republic of Congo, then sent abroad and processed into cobalt sulfate for electric vehicle batteries. More than 70% of the cobalt sulfate is refined in China, and most of the remainder is processed in Finland and Indonesia.
With China’s dominance in the market, interest in processing cobalt in the U.S. is growing. The recent tariffs imposed on China by the White House also have benefited EVelution Energy.
“They've exempted critical minerals imports,” Michel-Garcia said about the Trump administration’s tariffs. “All of our imports would come in tariff-free, and they would prevent our competitors, the Chinese, from being able to export products into the United States.”
EVelution touts commitment to sustainably, job creation
The company highlighted its responsibility to source cobalt ethically. Of the total cobalt mined in the DRC, about 15% to 30% is produced by unregulated artisanal small-scale mining, the source of reported human rights violations, where children are put to work and miners work in unsafe conditions, according to a paper published by New York University and Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
To help companies source minerals responsibly, countries and businesses have created initiatives and guidelines to follow. One organization, the Responsible Business Alliance, created the Responsible Minerals and offers an assessment of which smelters and refiners have systems in place to source minerals responsibly, among other tools. The Organization for Economic Co-operation, an international organization, has also published guidance for sourcing minerals responsibly from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.
EVelution Energy says it is committed to identifying and mitigating human rights abuses, child labor and other issues in the cobalt supply chain and aims to do business with companies that follow these published guidelines and initiatives.
A study conducted by a third-party consultant estimated that the cobalt processing facility would create 3,300 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Yuma and generate more than $750 million of economic activity.
“This is a facility that is not only strategically important for the country from a national security perspective, it's a facility that's going to generate a ton of jobs and economic activity,” Michel-Garcia said.
Through a partnership with Arizona Western College, EVelution Energy will help develop a critical-mineral metallurgical processing program at the college’s Wellton campus, close to the facility. These newly trained professionals could be part of the 100 employees working at the facility. The training program likely would begin in 2027, Michel-Garcia said.
Jobs at the plant would include security and administrative personnel, electricians, welders, machinists and processors, Michel-Garcia said.
“Our goal is to make every effort that we can to hire local residents and to allow this opportunity to retiring veterans from the nearby bases,” he said.