[News Article] Posco Holdings breaks ground on lithium hydroxide production plant
Posco Holdings breaks ground on
lithium hydroxide production plant BY SHIN HA-NEE, Korea JoongAng
Daily - Posco Holdings broke ground on a 575-billion-won ($451.5 million)
production plant for lithium hydroxide for electric vehicle (EV) batteries at
Yulchon industrial complex in South Jeolla, Tuesday. It is the first of its kind in
Korea, according to the company. The groundbreaking came after
Posco Holdings announced its plan to build two lithium factories — a lithium
carbonate factory near the Salar del Hombre Muerto salt lake in northern
Argentina, and a lithium hydroxide plant in South Jeollla — in October last
year. Posco Holdings plans to ship
lithium carbonate produced in the Argentina plant to the Yulchon facility in
Korea to make lithium hydroxide. Lithium hydroxide is one of the core materials
to make cathodes, which account for 40 percent of the production cost of an EV
battery. Posco Holdings is pouring some
575 billion won into building the lithium hydroxide plant through Posco Lithium
Solution, its wholly-owned subsidiary, which will fund, build and run the new
plant. The lithium plant, which is slated for completion in 2025, will produce
25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide a year, which is enough for batteries for
600,000 EVs. In 2018, Posco acquired mining
rights of the Hombre Muerto salt lake from Applecross, Australia-based Galaxy
Resources for $280 million. It discovered last year that the lake has 13.5
million tons of lithium reserves, or six times the amount it was projected to
have in 2018. Posco Holdings has been
building a 25,000-ton first-stage lithium hydroxide factory in Argentina since
March last year, which will be completed in the first half of 2024. Posco Holdings aims to expand
its lithium production capacity based on brine resources from the Hombre Muerto
salt lake to 100,000 tons by 2028.
Source: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/06/13/business/industry/Korea-Posco-Holdings-EV-battery/20230613185836661.html
2023.06.20