Lithium mine 'buying tide' under production expansion

my country Energy Storage Network News: Under the trend of power lithium battery production expansion, the lithium salt market has launched a new round of 'buying tide'. On November 13, Sichuan Energy Power announced that in order to accelerate the development of the company's lithium battery industry, it planned to invest about 927 million yuan to acquire 62.75% of Sichuan Energy Investment Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. ('Nengtou Lithium Industry'). Nengtou Lithium was established in 2018 and is mainly engaged in the development, processing and sales of lithium products such as upstream lithium mineral resources, basic lithium salt products, and metal lithium in the lithium battery industry. The Lijiagou mining area where it is located is rich in resources, with ore reserves of 40.36 million tons and lithium oxide (Li2O) reserves of 510,000 tons, with an average grade of 1.30%. At the same time, the 1.05 million tons/year mining and dressing project of the Lijiagou spodumene mine under construction approved by the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission is currently the largest domestic investment in lithium mining and dressing projects. It is planned to process 4,200 tons of raw ore per day and 1.05 million raw ore per year. Tons, with an annual processing of 180,000 tons of concentrate. Chuanneng Power’s asset acquisition will accelerate the promotion of upstream supply guarantee for lithium battery business by targeting abundant lithium resources. In fact, battery factories, OEMs, and materials companies around the world have taken frequent measures to maintain stability of upstream lithium salt materials. In September, CATL invested nearly 44 million yuan in a stake in the Canadian Lithium Corporation, assisting in the development of the Argentine lithium mine project, planning an initial annual output of about 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate, and an annual output of 40,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate. the amount. Recently, Tesla signed a five-year agreement to purchase high-purity lithium ore with Australian lithium miner PiedmontLithium, and also extended the supply contract with lithium compound processor Livent until 2021. A few days ago, Shengtun Lithium, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shengxin Lithium Energy, signed a three-year offtake agreement with Australia Galaxy Lithium to purchase 180,000 tons of lithium concentrate from the latter. Prior to this, it also invested 1.2 billion to increase the production of lithium hydroxide to ensure the continuous development of its lithium salt business. The world's largest copper ore processor, Chile's state-owned copper company Codelco, is also accelerating its lithium mining business recently. A few days ago, Codelco stated that it will continue its plan to develop lithium in the Maricunga salt flats after obtaining approval from the local environmental regulatory agency. It is worth noting that before this round of 'rush to buySince 2020, the price of spodumene has continued to fall and fell below US$400/ton in the third quarter, leading to a significant decline in the performance of many overseas lithium mining companies, and even declared bankruptcy due to continued losses. In October, the Australian lithium miner Altura entered the bankruptcy management process, and its lithium concentrate output was 220,000 tons, accounting for 5% of the global lithium supply output. Recently, Australian lithium miner Pilbara acquired Altura for US$175 million (approximately RMB 1.17 billion). Industry insiders believe that the further increase in the concentration of lithium concentrate supply will increase the bargaining power of the supply side, and the price may rise. The market shows that the current price of spodumene concentrate (6%) is between US$380-415/ton, and there is an upward trend. Since the third quarter, the production and sales of the downstream new energy automobile industry have shown a significant recovery trend, which has driven up the demand for lithium salts. According to data from the China Automobile Association, the domestic sales of new energy vehicles in October was 160,000, an increase of 104.5% year-on-year; the cumulative sales from January to October was 901,000, the year-on-year decline narrowed to 7.1%. According to the sales momentum in October, the annual sales of new energy vehicles are expected to exceed 1.2 million, a year-on-year increase. Currently, battery giants in China, Japan and South Korea and lithium salt companies are expanding production on a large scale. Under this circumstance, battery factories, OEMs, materials companies, etc. are all signing long-term supply agreements with upstream raw material suppliers or acquiring shares in mines to ensure a stable supply of raw materials and snap up lithium mineral resources worldwide. Disclaimer: Some pictures and content of articles published on this site are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete. Previous article: In October, the power lithium-ion battery was loaded with 5.9GWh, a year-on-year increase of 44%