New lithium plant opened in Argentina
French mining group Eramet and China’s Tsingshan on Wednesday inaugurated a lithium production plant in Argentina to supply the booming electric car industry.
The site in the northwestern province of Salta represents an investment of $870 million dollars, Eramet said.
The plant is not a traditional mine, nor one of the environmentally damaging salt flats from which the metal used in electric batteries is normally extracted in South America’s so-called lithium triangle of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
Instead, an innovative ‘direct extraction’ method is used, according to Eramet.
At full capacity, the plant is expected to produce up to 24,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year, Eramet CEO Christel Bories told AFP – enough for 600,000 electric vehicle batteries.
When Eramet announced in 2021 that it would revive the Tsingshan project, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, Bories said the plant was expected to supply 15 percent of Europe’s lithium needs.
Production is expected to start in November with 350 employees.
Argentina is the fourth largest producer of so-called ‘white gold’, after Australia, Chile and China.
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