- Started construction of a 25,000-ton lithium plant based at
Salar del Hombre Muerto… Completion by 2024
- Construction of an additional 25,000-ton plant is scheduled
to begin within this year... Expand to 100,000 tons by 2028
SEOUL, South Korea,
March 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- POSCO
Holdings started construction of a plant to commercialize brine
lithium in Argentina. The POSCO
Group is Argentina's first to produce lithium hydroxide for
batteries through the entire process, from acquisition of mining
rights to exploration to construction and operation of a production
plant.
On the 23rd, at the groundbreaking ceremony in Salta Province, Argentina for the brine lithium
plant based at Salar del Hombre Muerto (Salt Lake), located at an
altitude of 4,000 meters. Those in attendance included POSCO Group
CEO, Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Holdings Eco-friendly Future Materials
Team Leader Byeong-og, Yoo, POSCO Argentina Head Kwang-bok Kim,
Governor of Salta Province Gustavo
Saenz , and Governor of Catamarca Province Raul Jalil,
South Korean Ambassador to Argentina Myung- soo, Jang.
CEO Choi's participation in the groundbreaking ceremony is the
first step globally since the inauguration of POSCO Group holding
company on the 2nd and the first on-site visit to the lithium
facility, one of the group's 7 core businesses.
The brine lithium plant is expected to be completed in the first
half of 2024 with an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons of
lithium hydroxide. The total investment is about 839 million dollars
(about 1 trillion KRW),
including infrastructure investment and working capital. The
construction and operation of the lithium plant and financing will
be carried out by POSCO Argentina, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
POSCO Holdings.
In addition to the lithium business, POSCO Group plans to
increase the mass production to 50,000 tons from the end of 2024
through a second investment of 25,000 tons per year and expand the
production to a maximum of 100,000 tons from the same lake by
2028.
The 25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide that POSCO Group will
produce annually with the start of operations are sufficient to
supply about 600,000 electric vehicles. When production is expanded
to a maximum of 100,000 tons, this volume can fulfill demand for
about 2.4 million electric vehicles.
With the recent increase in global demand for electric vehicles,
battery companies around the world are striving to secure lithium
and POSCO Group has preemptively secured a large amount of lithium,
a key material for batteries, thereby remarkably strengthening the
competitiveness of POSCO Chemical's cathode material business. The
battery material business has gained a clear upper hand in the
world. Since cathode materials are mainly made of lithium,
nickel, and manganese, securing adequate supplies of these raw
materials leads to competitiveness in the cathode material
business.
The POSCO Group preemptively took over Argentine salt lakes in
2018 in response to the prospect of a global lithium supply
shortage due to the full-fledged electric vehicle era. Montgomery
& Associates, a global brine lithium consulting company,
confirmed at the end of 2020, that the lithium reserves, based on
lithium carbonate in the salt lake, are 13.5 million tons, which is
six times the 2.2 million tons estimated at the time of the
acquisition.
Considering the mining possibility and yield, it is expected
that at least 2.8 million tons of lithium carbonate will be
produced. Because the lithium concentration in this salt lake
recorded an average of 921 mg/L, indicating that it has the highest
lithium content among all of Argentina's salt lakes, and coupled
with the lake's low concentration of impurities like magnesium, it
is projected to have the world's highest yield.
In addition, by applying POSCO Group's independently developed
lithium extraction technology, the company has secured global
competitiveness in terms of productivity by dramatically shortening
production time and improving yield. The currently skyrocketing
price of lithium has reached five times the price when the lake was
acquired (market price of $70,000 per
ton of lithium). Considering the normal operating profit margin of
50% in the lithium mining industry, the lake is forecast to produce
ten trillion won in accumulated
operating profit.
POSCO Group plans to become one of the top 3 global companies in
lithium production by 2030 based on the brine, hard rock, and
recycling of waste batteries at the group level including POSCO
Argentina, POSCO Lithium Solution, and POSCO HY Clean Metal,
centered on the parent company, POSCO Holdings. On the 14th, POSCO
JK Solid Solution, a joint venture with Jeong Kwan Co., Ltd., began
using its solid electrolyte production technology on the first
solid electrolyte production line. The process uses lithium in
expanding the battery material business to the next generation of
solid state batteries.
On the 21st, CEO Jung-woo Choi met with President
Alberto Ángel Fernández, Minister of Industry of Argentina in the
Federal Government Matias Kulfas, and Deputy Minister of Mining
Fernanda Avila at the Presidential
Palace in Buenos Aires where they
discussed cooperation between the POSCO Group and the government of
Argentina in the battery material business. The POSCO Group and
Argentine government signed an MOU for enhanced business
cooperation in the projected lithium plant expansion and etc.
Also on this day, CEO Jeong-woo Choi requested cooperation in
the hydrogen and food sectors as well as the battery material
business, and President Fernandez promised active cooperation. In
addition, CEO Choi asked for support from the Argentine government
for Busan hosting the 2030 Expo
from the perspective of NGO diplomacy.
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SOURCE POSCO Holdings