Rinehart-backed Vulcan chases green lithium goals with Aveva

Billionaire Gina Rinehart-backed Vulcan Energy will use UK industrial software giant Aveva to build the ‘digital backbone’ for its zero-carbon lithium brine project.

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting is a 7.5 per cent stakeholder in Vulcan.

Billionaire Gina Rinehart-backed Vulcan Energy will tap industrial software giant Aveva’s digital systems – already used by other Aussie mining and infrastructure companies – to bring its zero-carbon lithium brine project in Germany to life.

The ASX-listed business, which counts Ms Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting as a 7.5 per cent stakeholder, announced a partnership with Aveva during the tech group’s four-day conference in Paris, which was attended by more than 3500 delegates representing its 23,000-plus customers across 100 countries.

Vulcan, which wants to become the world’s first lithium company with a carbon neutral footprint, will source Aveva’s software solutions to build the “digital backbone” for its €1.5bn ($2.4bn) engineering project in Germany’s Upper Rhine Valley.

Phase One of Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium Project, designated Lionheart, will produce both renewable geothermal energy and lithium hydroxide for electric vehicle (EV) batteries from the same deep brine source.

Stellantis, the owner of major automotive brands Dodge, Jeep, and Maserati, is a Vulcan shareholder and one of its key offtake customers.

Aveva’s cloud-based platform Connect will be used to enhance collaboration and foster digital agility across the different project phases and industrial assets, Aveva chief executive Caspar Herzberg said.

“By collaborating with Aveva, Vulcan can harness the full power of Connect to ease collaboration and accelerate the software underpinning their groundbreaking lithium technology,” he said.

“This collaboration supports both companies’ commitment to driving digital transformation and sustainability throughout the life cycle of industrial assets.”

Vulcan’s partnership also gives it access to Aveva’s suite of software solutions tailored to Phase One and future phases, including its Contract Risk Management and Asset Information Management solutions, a cutting-edge digital twin and Assai’s Document Control and Management system. 

The software solutions will enable secure data sharing among multiple stakeholders, including contractors, providing faster decision-making and efficiency.

Vulcan chief executive Cris Moreno said the MoU marks the beginning of a promising long-term collaboration. “We are delighted to have AVEVA as a key partner in delivering world-leading digital solutions for Phase One of our integrated renewable energy and zero carbon lithium project ecosystem and beyond,” he said.

The digital partnership comes as Vulcan targets the receipt of credit approvals and debt commitment letters by the end of the year and is targeting signing of the finance documentation in the first quarter of 2025 for the first phase.

In October, Vulcan said it was tapping commercial bank interest with the help of advisor BNP Paribas. It has received support so far from its structuring group that includes the European Investment Bank, Export Credit Agencies, Bpifrance Assurance Export, Export Development Canada, Export Finance Australia and SACE as well as structuring banks ABN AMRO, ING, Natixis and UniCredit.

The next step is to widen the lending pool to other commercial banks marking substantial progress towards the finalisation of Vulcan’s debt raising process.

Some of these software solutions are already in use by Aussie mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP, energy companies AGL and CS Energy and water utilities, including TasWater.

The writer travelled to Paris courtesy of Aveva.

Originally published as Rinehart-backed Vulcan chases green lithium goals with Aveva