Draslovka to Acquire ex-Natron Energy Battery IP, Completing a Vertically Integrated Western Sodium-Ion Value Chain

Acquisition gives Draslovka control of former Natron Energy IP portfolio spanning sodium-ion materials, cells and complete battery systems.

• Deal combines acquired IP with Draslovka’s existing chemistry and European cathode-material capabilities, bringing key parts of the sodium-ion value chain together within one Western-aligned group and its partners.
• The IP acquisition strengthens Draslovka’s position across the emerging Western sodium-ion battery value chain.
• Technology targets applications where safety, high power, long cycle life and performance across a wide temperature range are critical, including data centers, grid storage, defense, industrial fleets, telecoms, rail and aviation.
• The acquired IP will substantively boost Draslovka’s technology offering, a portfolio of transformative and protected innovations for specific industries.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. & PRAGUE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Draslovka’s US-based subsidiary, COVORO MINING SOLUTIONS LLC (Covoro), the operator of one of the largest solid sodium cyanide plants in the world, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the intellectual property portfolio in Prussian Blue Analogue (PBA) and Prussian White Analogue (PWA) sodium-ion battery technology originally developed by Natron Energy.

Prussian Blue and Prussian White Analogues are not a single material but a tunable family of framework materials, and the portfolio protects that family across the whole stack — active-material synthesis, electrodes, electrolytes, cell design and manufacturing, as well as complete battery systems — through issued and pending patents, trademarks, and manufacturing know-how, with protection extending into the mid-2040s. The agreement covers intellectual property and intangible assets only and was subject to review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which granted clearance as a condition to closing.

The transaction consolidates PBA and PWA capabilities within a group of close West-aligned allies and partners:

• Upstream chemistry – Where Draslovka is the world’s leading producer of sodium cyanide and the ferrocyanide feedstocks at the heart of these materials; cathode active material production, with Europe’s first industrial-scale Prussian White Analogue line starting up at Kolín, Czech Republic in partnership with Altris of Uppsala, Sweden, in which the Group is a strategic shareholder;
• Materials, cell and systems intellectual property – To be held by Covoro in the United States;
• Commercial partnerships – Including Altris’s collaboration with Clarios on serial production of low-voltage sodium-ion systems that carry the technology into finished products. The complete supply chain is now built on Western-available inputs and Western-held intellectual property.

“The missing piece of the Western battery value chain has been the materials, and that piece now sits fully within Draslovka Group,” said Pavel Brůžek, CEO of Draslovka. “Draslovka is now building an ecosystem to develop a Western sodium-ion supply chain based on both Prussian White and Prussian Blue technology, in the United States and in the European Union. We have already solved the production and scale-up of active material for both technologies at Kolín, and we now hold all the intellectual property rights associated with the technology, including the finished product and access to the US market. That means Draslovka can take this technology to market directly, and we will scale it with the partners who are ready to move at our pace.”

“The strength of this sodium-ion technology is in applications where safety, power, cycle life and performance across a wide temperature range matter most,” said Jackson Briggs, Strategy and Business Development Manager at Covoro. “That includes data centers, grid storage and services, industrial fleets, telecoms, rail, aviation and other applications that need durable, fast-response batteries. We now have a technology platform that can be scaled with partners across those markets.”

Industry analysts now widely agree that sodium-ion complements rather than competes with lithium. While lithium optimizes for energy density, PBA and PWA batteries are intrinsically safe and not subject to thermal runaway, charge and discharge in seconds, and endure tens of thousands of cycles across a wide temperature range. Those characteristics satisfy fast-growing market demand from data centers and AI infrastructure as well as grid storage and services. They offer a durable alternative to lead-acid and nickel-cadmium batteries across automotive, telecom, rail, aviation and industrial standby. Taking account of the full life cycle, that durability makes them highly cost-efficient against competing battery technologies.

Within sodium-ion itself, the Prussian Blue and Prussian White Analogue family stands apart from the layered-oxide and polyanionic chemistries largely utilized by Asian manufacturers. PBA and PWA materials are made at low temperature from abundant sodium, iron and manganese through ferrocyanide chemistry the West already produces at industrial scale; they require no lithium, cobalt, nickel or graphite; they deliver class-leading power and cycle life; and they run on equipment compatible with existing lithium-ion lines. This is the one sodium-ion chemistry whose supply chain can stand entirely on Western ground today — a decisive consideration for data center, grid and defense buyers under tightening supply-chain and procurement rules.

With cathode-material production coming online in Europe, cell and system manufacturing is the remaining step to scale. Covoro and the Group intend to develop that capacity with selected partners — potentially through materials supply and licensing, cell technology licensing and co-located manufacturing. Draslovka will seek opportunities for demand-led scale-up both in Europe and the United States utilizing existing infrastructure.

About Draslovka and COVORO MINING SOLUTIONS LLC

Draslovka a.s. (‘Draslovka’) is a chemical technologies, products and services company serving industries including mining, agriculture and manufacturing, and is developing technologies and materials for sodium-ion batteries. Its technology portfolio includes Glycine Leaching Technology (‘GLT’), a proprietary process for leaching metals including gold, copper, nickel and cobalt, as well as specialist chemistry, reagents and chemical application services. Draslovka is a major producer of sodium cyanide and ferrocyanide chemistry relevant to Prussian Blue and Prussian White active materials. COVORO MINING SOLUTIONS LLC (‘Covoro’) is the US-based member of the Draslovka Group and operates Draslovka’s Memphis, Tennessee, facility. Upon completion of the transaction, Covoro will hold the acquired Prussian Blue and Prussian White Analogue intellectual property in the United States as part of Draslovka’s broader technology portfolio.

About Altris

Altris is a Swedish sodium-ion battery developer, with a primary focus on its proprietary Prussian White cathode material. Supported by strategic investors including Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Clarios, Maersk Growth, InnoEnergy and Molindo, Altris is taking its patented innovation from conception to commercialization. Looking ahead, Altris aspires to become the primary supplier of sodium-ion battery cathodes in Europe, making a real impact on the world by enabling a better battery at scale.