Cobalt Lithium Company 'Precautions' Deploying Overseas Minerals

As the new energy automobile industry has entered a stage of rapid development, the stability of the supply of metal resources such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt in the upstream of power lithium batteries has received more attention, and some listed companies have invested heavily in the acquisition of high-quality overseas mine resources. Acquisition of overseas assets On December 14, Luoyang Molybdenum announced that it had reached a share purchase agreement with Freeport to acquire 95% of the latter’s indirect interest in the Kisanfu copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a total price of US$550 million. Kisanfu is one of the world’s largest and highest-grade undeveloped copper-cobalt ore projects. The ore resources amount to 365 million tons, the copper grade is 1.72%, and the copper-containing metal content is about 6.28 million tons; the cobalt grade is 0.85% and the cobalt-containing metal The volume is about 3.1 million tons. The company said that it is expected to expand the amount of resources and become another vital expert-level asset of Luoyang Molybdenum. In addition to the expansion of copper and cobalt ore resources, Luoyang Molybdenum's acquisition of Kisanfu mine will have a synergistic effect with its asset TFM. In 2016, Luoyang Molybdenum acquired TFM for US$2.65 billion. The mining area covers an area of u200bu200bmore than 1,500 square kilometers and is one of the highest grade copper-cobalt mines in the world, with great prospects for resource exploration and development. TFM mine achieved 177,956 tons of copper metal output and 16,098 tons of cobalt metal output in 2019. Since the full takeover of the Chinese management team in April 2019, the TFM business has been given new vitality. Through the improvement of management efficiency and technological improvement, the results of cost reduction and efficiency increase have been significant, and the total cash cost in 2019 has decreased by 130 million US dollars. The industry believes that TFM's mature operation management and good infrastructure construction have created favorable development and operation conditions for the Kisanfu project. With the development of the electric vehicle market, the use of cobalt in lithium batteries will rapidly increase, as will the demand for lithium. Recently, Ganfeng Lithium announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ganfeng International, will provide ExarCapital with a total of no more than US$100 million (approximately RMB 656 million) in financial assistance, and will eventually supply the financial assistance to ExarCapital. MineraExar. The financial support provided by Ganfeng International will all be used for the development and construction of the lithium salt lake project. The project has an average lithium concentration of 592mg/L, a lithium content of 3,729,700 tons, and a lithium carbonate content of 19,852,700 tons. The lithium resource reserves support an annual output of more than 40,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate for more than 40 years. It is planned to be put into operation in 2021. On the evening of December 8, Tianqi Lithium announced a notice stating that its wholly-owned subsidiary TLEA intends to introduce strategic investor IGO, an Australian listed company, by way of capital increase and share expansion. IGO’s wholly-owned subsidiary, IGOLithium Holdings Pty Ltd, will invest 1.4 billion U.S. dollars and subscribe to 304 million U.S. dollars of newly registered capital for TERA. Tianqi Lithium revealed that of the funds obtained by TLEA this time, approximately US$1.2 billion will be used to repay the syndicated Mu0026A loan, and the remainder will be kept in TLEA for capital expenditure and operational commissioning of the Australian Quinana Lithium Hydroxide Plant. expenditure. Enhancing the right to speak The electrification of vehicles has become a long-term development trend of the industry. With the increase in sales and the increase in penetration, the market value of many new energy vehicle companies has reached new highs, further highlighting the value of the new energy vehicle industry chain. In this context, the development of overseas lithium salt resources has become the company's 'precautionary' choice. In order to ensure the supply of lithium, Ganfeng Lithium has invested in MineraExar, the parent company of Caui-Olaroz, to obtain the rights of its Argentine lithium salt lake project in 2018, and gradually expand the equity to 50%. It is worth noting that Ganfeng International has previously provided MineraExar with approximately RMB 260 million in financial assistance through ExarCapital. Ganfeng Lithium's move is closely related to the company's strategic layout. Driven by market demand for new energy vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy storage, the lithium battery industry has a promising future. At the 13th High-tech Lithium Battery Summit, Li Liangbin, chairman of Ganfeng Lithium Industry, pointed out that the global lithium battery market demand is expected to rise rapidly in the next ten years, reaching nearly 1,000GWh in 2023. As the core raw material of lithium batteries, the demand for lithium compounds will also rise. It is estimated that the annual demand for lithium salts will exceed 1 million tons in 2025. As the world's second largest cobalt processor, Luoyang Molybdenum acquired Kisanfu to further consolidate its position in the field of cobalt and electric vehicle raw materials. Disclaimer: Some pictures and content of articles published on this site are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete.