Eramet has delivered first production of lithium carbonate from its newly commissioned Centenario plant located in Argentina’s Salta province, making it the first European company to do so at an industrial scale.
Christel Bories, chair and CEO of Eramet, said the start of lithium production at Centenario represents a “key milestone” for the group’s diversification into metals for the energy transition. The start of production was achieved less than three years after Eramet started the construction of the first plant.
The Centenario plant currently uses Eramet’s direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology that it says is capable of producing “sustainable and highly efficient lithium carbonate suitable for electric vehicle battery applications.”
The drainable mineral resources of the Centenario-Ratones salar amount to more than 15 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, with an average concentration of 407 mg/L of lithium contained in the brine.
This world-class resource, said Eramet, would be large enough to support long-term growth optionality for production capacity to above 75,000 tonnes of LCE of year.
The plant at is Centenario designed to initially extract and produce 24,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year, and at full capacity should be positioned in the 1st quartile of the lithium industry cost-curve, Eramet said.
On Oct. 24, the French miner announced it had regained full ownership of its flagship lithium business in Argentina after buying out the 49.9% share of its Chinese partner Tsingshan for $699 million.
The Centenario project was attractive despite a drop in lithium prices, and full ownership would let Eramet decide how to pursue a planned second production facility, Bories said at the time of the deal.
