China's Tsingshan set to expand lithium value chain in Argentina

Chinese nickel and stainless steel giant Tsingshan is preparing to construct an electrochemical plant in northwestern Argentina's Jujuy province that will provide key inputs for lithium carbonate production, supplying both local industry as well as Chile and Bolivia.

The US$120mn alkali chlorine processing unit will be located in the Perico industrial park and will have production capacity of 35,000t/y of sodium hydroxide and 100,000t/y of hydrogen chloride in the first phase. 

"It has the capacity to expand and grow lithium projects in the region," Santiago Bustelo, Tsingshan's senior manager for South America, replied to a question from BNamericas at a webinar hosted by Chilean non-profit public-private Pacific Foundation this week.

The executive commented that these chemicals are not currently produced on industrial scale in these countries, and "if they are produced, they are in very small quantities and not enough."

In addition to supplying companies in the region with these chemicals, which are used to remove impurities and process lithium compounds into lithium carbonate, the plant will allow Tsingshan to consolidate its lithium value chain in Argentina.

Construction will take 18 months and will go ahead in spite of the troubled macroeconomic situation in Argentina.

“It is up to each company how it addresses the scenario. Inflation certainly affects costs and access to certain products, but it hasn't been a great impediment or risk for the projects. It hasn't affected Centenario-Ratones or the alkali chlorine plant,” Bustelo said, referring to the lithium project that Tsingshan is developing with French company Eramet in Salta province.

ADVANCES AT CENTENARY-RATONES

Centenario-Ratones "is at an advanced stage of construction, especially phase one. We hope that by the beginning or middle of next year it will be producing 24,000t/y of lithium carbonate, and then we will start phase two, which will add another 30,000t/y by 2025," Bustelo said.

The process will use direct extraction technology that will reduce the production cycle to just days, with a lithium recovery rate greater than 90%.

Late last year, Tsingshan announced that it would double its investment in Salta through Centenario Ratones, in order to achieve the goal of exporting US$4bn-worth of lithium per year starting in 2024.