Russia’s Nornickel in talks to supply materials for BASF’s battery plans

MOSCOW, June 27 (Reuters) – Russia’s mining giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) said on Tuesday it was in talks with German chemicals firm BASF to supply raw materials needed in the process for making lithium-ion batteries in Europe in the future.

Nornickel said in a statement that the talks covered “cooperation to set the foundation to supply battery cell producers for electric vehicles in Europe with regionally produced cathode materials.”

BASF intended to invest up to 400 million euro ($452 million) as a first step to build production plants for cathode materials in Europe, Nornickel said.

($1 = 0.8842 euros) (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Edmund Balir)