The Prime Minister has marked the site of Australia’s first advanced manufacturing facility for lithium-ion batteries.

Energy Renaissance has plans for a $70 million battery plant at Tomago, near Newcastle in NSW. Work should begin in a matter of weeks.

The company’s managing director Mark Chilcote says the batteries will be specially designed for hot climates.

“We're going to start manufacturing lithium-ion batteries in a temporary facility, also in Tomago, we'll start that in July,” he said.

“The batteries that come out of that are low cost, they're extremely safe, but more importantly they're designed for the hot climates of Australia and South-East Asia.

“Their purpose will be static storage, so industrial/commercial, houses and heavy vehicles, so buses, trains, trams.

“Initially we import the materials into Australia, so we're very focused on Australian raw materials.

“Australia is the only country in the world that has 100 per cent of mined raw materials here.

“Unfortunately at this point we don't value-add them to battery-grade material.

“So we're very interested in working with both industry and government in proving up that supply chain and being a catalyst for that supply chain.”

On his recent visit to the site, Prime Minister Scott Morrison laid out a 10-year roadmap for businesses to capitalise on Australia's access to resources and critical minerals.

“We have incredible stores of lithium. At the moment, we aren't processing that to any great extent here in Australia,” he said.

“It is a sovereign and strategic priority for Australia to ensure we are hardwired into this supply chain around the world and a supply chain that Australia and our partners can rely on.

“These rare earths and critical minerals are what literally pulls together the technology we'll be relying on into the future.”