Eramet, a JV owned by Eramet and Tsingshan, launches the start of the commissioning of the plant designed to extract lithium from the salar brine and process it into battery-grade lithium carbonate, required for the electric vehicles value chain.

Christel Bories, Chair and CEO of Eramet, has inaugurated the Centenario Phase 1 lithium carbonate production plant in the presence of Gustavo Saenz, Governor of Salta Region, Diana Mondino, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Argentina, Luis Lucero, Mining Federal Secretary of the Republic of Argentina and Benjamin Gallezot French Interministerial Delegate on Strategic Metals and Minerals.

The start of production is planned in November 2024. Ramp-up is expected to be achieved by mid2025. At full capacity, the Centenario Phase 1 plant will produce 24,000 t/year1 battery-grade lithium carbonate equivalent (‘LCE’), equivalent to the requirements for 600,000 electric vehicles/year. Production will be very limited in 2024.

The total amount of investment for Centenario Phase 1 is forecast to be around US$ 870 million.