IGO gave debt-laden Tianqi a lifeline late last year when it agreed to pay $1.4 billion for a stake in the Chinese company’s Australian lithium assets, namely the Kwinana processing plant and the world’s biggest lithium mine, Greenbushes, both in Western Australia.
MELBOURNE : A joint venture between Tianqi Lithium and IGO Ltd has produced Australia’s first batch of lithium hydroxide, as demand for the chemical used in electric-vehicle (EV) batteries is set to gain speed, IGO said on Monday.
IGO gave debt-laden Tianqi a lifeline late last year when it agreed to pay $1.4 billion for a stake in the Chinese company’s Australian lithium assets, namely the Kwinana processing plant and the world’s biggest lithium mine, Greenbushes, both in Western Australia.
Tianqi had postponed commissioning of the Kwinana hydroxide plant in March 2020, citing liquidity problems, after a precipitous fall in lithium prices blamed on oversupply. Lithium prices are up sharply in 2021 on resurgent demand.
“We first ran some spodumene through the calcination oven and then through all of the various steps. That culminated … in getting some lithium product out of the last step to produce the first lithium hydroxide,” Chief Executive Peter Bradford told Reuters on Friday. Spodumene is the name for hard-rock lithium.
Lithium hydroxide is used to make cathodes for lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles.
Perth-based IGO expects to be producing a saleable lithium hydroxide product by the end of 2021, and a high-quality battery grade product by the March quarter next year, Bradford said.
The Kwinana plant is expected to reach its initial 24,000 tonne per year (tpy) capacity by the end of 2022, with another 24,000 tpy expansion to commission in 2024 before doubling that capacity again to 96,000 tonnes in the following years.
“All indicators are that the EV thematic is growing at a far faster rate that people have estimated,” Bradford said. “We believe that with the demand there, there is going to be a desire to build out our lithium hydroxide capacity.”
Source : reuters
