Ford and Nemaska Lithium have signed an 11 year deal that will see the American automaker buy lithium products from the Quebec company for use in electric car batteries.

The deal will see Ford become Nemaska’s first customer.

The companies issued a joint news release saying Ford will buy up to 13,000 tons a year of lithium hydroxide produced at Nemaska’s factory in Bécancour, Que., about 150 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

The factory, currently under construction, is slated to open in 2026 and is expected to be the first of its kind in Canada

The factory will convert spodumene concentrate, a lithium ore mined at Nemaska’s Whabouchi mine in northern Quebec, to lithium hydroxide.

Nemaska is co-owned by Quebec’s economic development agency, Investissement Québec and Livent, a Philadelphia-based lithium company.