6K Energy, the cathode materials production division of 6K Inc., will create 230 new jobs at a new site in the Airport Industrial Park on James Lawrence Road in Madison County.
Company officials and the Greater Jackson Chamber made the announcement during a press conference at theCO, Tuesday.
6K Energy’s PlusCAM factory will be the world’s first UniMelt plasma cathode plant, providing low cost, ultra sustainable production of battery material for localized supply chains in the United States.
The battery material manufacturing plant will initially invest $200 million in the 120,000-square-foot facility for construction and equipment – a number that is expected to expand to $250 million.
Rob Davies, CEO, 6K Energy, said Jackson and Madison County stood out because of teamwork.
“We started with about 120 sites, and we had a site selection criteria,” Davies said, “We boiled it down to about 12 sites … to six, and we developed a short list of three, and negotiated quite hard with all three – in different states.”
Davies said the three were on par financially, before Jackson was selected.
“What really stood out for Jackson was the quality of the team they assembled,” Davies said, “People from the (Greater Jackson) Chamber, the City, the County as well as the state.
“We ended up concluding we could really work with the people here in Tennessee, and that really made the difference in our site selection.”
The company also has a production site in Pennsylvania.
“We’ll probably break ground in July, this year,” Davies said, “Hopefully we will start production about quarter three of next year, so the hiring will occur in the next month- or two until September 2024.”
Technology for 6K Energy was developed at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“We are being very selective,” said Kyle Spurgeon, CEO, Greater Jackson Chamber, “We are pursuing companies – high capital investment, lower employment count, higher wage. This is exactly in that target for us.
6K Energy is the world’s only sustainable production for battery materials.
“This will be one of the most advanced facilities in West Tennessee – and the entire state,” Spurgeon said, “but our business is all about relationships, and we struck a very good relationship with this team and we were able to close the deal.”
(PHOTO: From left, John Nanney, Vice president Economic & Industrial Development, Jackson Energy Authority; Lia Polak, 6K Energy Program Manager; Thanh Nguyen, SVP Deployment, 6K Energy; Rob Davies, CEO, 6K Energy; Bruce Bradshaw, Chief Marketing Officer, 6K Energy and Kyle Spurgeon, CEO, Greater Jackson Chamber)
