Finland: EU and Sibanye-Stillwater, through its Keliber lithium project, join forces in €150 million deal to improve EU access to and resilience in battery materials
Summary
The European Investment Bank announced a €150 million direct loan to Keliber Technology Oy (contractual borrower; Keliber Oy is a guarantor), part of a €500 million financing package for an integrated Finnish lithium project spanning mines, concentration and battery-grade lithium-hydroxide production. The EIB project record gives a signature date of 20 August 2024 for the €150 million loan; the European Commission provides an InvestEU guarantee for the direct financing.
Analytical significance
The EIB describes the transaction as its first financing support for mining critical raw materials in the EU. It moves EU lithium policy from strategic-project recognition and general financing frameworks into a signed, project-specific public-bank commitment for integrated domestic extraction and processing. The signed facility identifies Keliber Technology Oy as the borrower, correcting the broader EIB announcement's use of Keliber Oy; the bank's later €17.5M Natixis signature is not part of this coded direct loan.
Instruments in this event
The separate financial commitments and control clauses this announcement contains, each with its own status history and evidence.
Framing anchors
Official framing, classified only from quoted passages.
Framing: Not yet coded. No framing category is assigned because this record does not yet carry a verified quoted passage from the primary source. Per the methodology, a framing label is never inferred from context alone.
Affected materials
Related events
Events touching the same materials.
Sources (3)
Finland: EU and Sibanye-Stillwater, through its Keliber lithium project, join forces in €150 million deal to improve EU access to and resilience in battery materials
Primary sourceEuropean Investment Bank
Official EIB release: EIB is lending €150 million to Keliber Oy as part of a €500 million financing package for integrated lithium mining, concentration and lithium-hydroxide processing in Finland. The direct loan is backed by an InvestEU guarantee.
https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2024-313-eu-and-sibanye-stillwater-through-its-keliber-lithium-project-in-finland-join-forces-in-eur150-million-deal-to-improve-eu-access-to-and-resilience-in-battery-materials
KELIBER BATTERY GRADE LITHIUM PRODUCTION
Primary sourceEuropean Investment Bank
Official EIB project record. Status Signed; records €150,000,000 signed on 2024-08-20 and a later €17,500,000 signature on 2024-12-20. This tranche codes only the €150 million transaction surfaced by the August 2024 EIB release. Project description covers lithium mines, a concentrator and a hydrometallurgical battery-grade lithium-hydroxide plant.
https://www.eib.org/en/projects/all/20170804
Sibanye Stillwater, Exhibit 4.8: 20 August 2024 EIB–Keliber Technology Oy €150 million Facility Agreement
Primary sourceSibanye Stillwater Limited / U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR)
Binding EIB €150M facility agreement executed August 20, 2024 and furnished April 25, 2025. Party definitions name Keliber Technology Oy as Borrower; Keliber Oy is an Original Guarantor. Corrects the shorthand recipient wording in EIB's August 2024 press release.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1786909/000178690925000019/a2017-080488685financont.htm
Citation
Cite this record
This cites the record — the project's coding of the instrument. For a claim about what a government actually did, cite the primary document itself; the sources above carry the canonical URLs.
Strategic Materials Policy Tracker. "Finland: EU and Sibanye-Stillwater, through its Keliber lithium project, join forces in €150 million deal to improve EU access to and resilience in battery materials." Record evt-eu-eib-keliber-2024, 2024-08-23. https://strategic-materials-policy-tracker.vercel.app/events/evt-eu-eib-keliber-2024