Investors who own Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) shares might be interested to know that, as of yesterday, they own a slice of battery maker InoBat Auto.
Rio Tinto invested in the battery technology and manufacturing company following their agreement to work together to establish an electric vehicle battery value chain in Serbia.
At the time of writing, the Rio Tinto share price is $88.65, 1.27% lower than its previous close.
At least the iron miner isn't alone in its falls. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has also dropped 0.96% today.
Let's take a closer look at Rio Tinto's latest investment.
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Iron ore giant bets on battery maker
Rio Tinto shareholders rejoice, the company has taken another step into the European battery materials sector.
Its latest investment is currently building a battery research and development facility and pilot plant under development in Slovakia. It is also planning to build several gigafactories, including one in Serbia.
InoBat specialises in research, development, manufacture, and provision of premium innovative electric batteries. Its batteries are custom designed to be used in automotive, commercial vehicle, motorsport, and aerospace sectors.
InoBat's potential Serbian factory might be of particular significance to Rio Tinto. The iron ore giant's $2.4 billion Jadar lithium-borates project is also located in the country.
According to Rio Tinto, the Jadar project is one of the largest greenfield lithium projects in development.
The company says it could potentially produce around 58,000 tonne of battery-grade lithium carbonate. That would position Rio Tinto as the largest source of European lithium for at least the next 15 years.
The Jadar project is subject to approvals, permits and licences.
Managing director of Rio Tinto's battery materials business Marnie Finlayson commented on the company's new investment:
Our Jadar lithium project in Serbia is on the doorstep of the European electric vehicle market. Capable of producing enough lithium to make around one million electric vehicle batteries a year to the highest environmental standards, we believe Jadar will be a critical supplier of the European battery ecosystem and, through our investment in InoBat, we hope that we can assist in making some of those batteries locally.
InoBat CEO Marian Bocek said the company is "thrilled" to partner with Rio Tinto:
Our mission has always been to provide solutions across the entire value chain – a cradle-to-cradle approach, which showcases the concept of the circular economy and will support Europe's bid for technological independence.
Rio Tinto share price snapshot
This year hasn't been great for the Rio Tinto share price.
It has fallen 11% over the last 30 days. It's also 22% lower than it was at the start of 2021.
