Canada-based Euro Manganese (EMN) signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Norwegian state-owned company Statkraft for the long-term supply of carbon-free renewable energy for Euro Manganese’s flagship Chvaletice Manganese Project (CMP) in the Czech Republic. Statkraft is Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy.

EMN is a battery materials company focused on becoming a leading, competitive, and environmentally superior producer of high-purity manganese for the electric vehicle (EV) industry and other high-technology applications. The Chvaletice project is a waste-to-value recycling and remediation opportunity involving reprocessing old tailings from a decommissioned mine. The Chvaletice Project is the only sizable resource of manganese in the European Union.

EMN has been working with Baringa Partners over the last year on establishing long-term power pricing forecasts within the European Union, as well as identifying strategic partners from which to procure long-term, economically viable, green energy for the CMP. The MoU is one result of this ongoing process.

The MoU lays the foundation for the strategic cooperation between Euro Manganese and Statkraft to support the ongoing net-zero objectives of the Project’s proposed processing plant. The aim is to establish a long-term corporate Power Purchase Agreement to provide carbon-free power to the Project, in coordination with Statkraft’s renewable power supply portfolio.

The power supply is planned to commence between 2026 and 2027, according to the current estimated construction and commissioning timeline of the CMP.

EMN’s recently released Life Cycle Assessment results for the CMP highlighted the net benefit derived from sourcing power from carbon-free sources, whereby the net global warming potential is reduced by half.

Background. The presence of manganese and iron minerals was first recorded near the present-day village of Chvaletice in the 1800s, and sporadic, localized mining of the Chvaletice ore body took place during the early 1900s. Starting in the 1930s, ore was processed for the recovery of manganese and shipped by rail to steel mills in Czechoslovakia and Germany. Between 1951 and 1975, the focus turned to the extraction of pyrite, which was used to produce sulfuric acid for various industrial clients. The waste from these operations created the three existing tailings piles that form the Chvaletice deposit. The piles were rehabilitated with a layer of topsoil and trees planted between 1975 and 1983.

The Chvaletice manganese reserve is contained in three adjacent tailings piles that were placed on flat terrain next to the former Chvaletice open pit pyrite mine. The tailings consist of sandy to fine greyish material containing approximately 7.4% manganese, mostly occurring as rhodochrosite and kutnohorite, two mineral forms of manganese carbonate.