Andrew Forrest’s partner in a proposed Australian nickel and cobalt refinery will be among the recipients sharing $50 million of federal funding designed to stoke more onshore minerals processing and take the nation closer to making batteries.

Nickel and lithium producer IGO Group will receive $4.6 million of federal money to help advance a plan to build a refinery in Western Australia with Dr Forrest’s Wyloo Metals, which would go a step further than any Australian nickel plant and make precursor materials for the cathodes in modern batteries.