Rio Tinto partners with InoBat to explore innovative lithium battery initiative Rio Tinto and InoBat, a European battery technology and manufacturing company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to accelerate the establishment of a "cradle to cradle" battery manufacturing and recycling value chain in Serbia. The partnership will cover the full commodity life-cycle from mining through to recycling of lithium. Rio Tinto's Jadar project in Serbia, one of the largest greenfield lithium projects in development, has the potential to produce approximately 55 thousand tonnes of battery grade lithium carbonate in Europe, one of the world's largest growing electric vehicles markets. InoBat, a European based battery manufacturer with a battery research and development facility and pilot plant being developed in Slovakia intends to scale up its future production, through gigafactories to be built in the EMEA region. InoBat's goal is to serve the Europen market with innovative energy solutions, including production and recycling of electric vehicle batteries.