Australian mining company expands into Oxfordshire

Electric battery production in the UK rose by 4.8% in 2022.

An Australian mining company has announced it will open its first factory in the UK early next year.

Iron ore firm Fortescue said it expects the new EV battery facility in Banbury, in Oxfordshire, to create more than 120 jobs and boost its UK supply chain.

The new facility is part of the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement which came into effect on 31 May.

Recruitment for the factory's workforce has already started, the company said in a statement.

The company, which has recently integrated with British manufactures Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), said it will be focused on products for the "off-highway sector" such as trucks and trains.

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the project was "key" to the government's agenda.

The factory will cover over 13,500 sq m and Fortescue said it is expected to employ about 120 engineers, technicians, apprentices and graduates by 2025.

Fortescue Mining Group also run Fortescue Future Industries, which develops clean technologies including the world's first, zero emission "infinity train" that charges itself using the Earth's gravitational force.

Sam Coughlin, Chief Operating Officer of WAE, said: "We will have the capability to sell those zero emission power trains more broadly in the UK and in the European Market."

The expansion is part of the "first new UK trade deal signed since Brexit", which removed most of the tariffs on trade between the UK and Australia.

In March 2022, the government spent £198m for 943 buses in areas such as Oxfordshire, Portsmouth and Norfolk.

At the time, Transport Minister Baroness Vere said it was an "enormous step towards a cleaner future" for the country.