The Chinese company Zijin Mining Group announced this Friday investments for 380 million dollars for the construction of a lithium carbonate plant in Catamarca.
Its construction will be carried out by the Argentine firm Liexa subsidiary of Zijin, whose authorities also expressed their intention to seek new opportunities to develop mining in the country.
The Chinese group acquired the share capital of Neo Lithium Corp in Canada and by controlling the company decided to invest through its subsidiary in Argentina, Liex380 million dollars in the construction of a lithium carbonate plant in the Tres Quebradas (3Q) project, which will produce 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year with the idea of doubling its production in the medium term.
The announcement made by Chinese mining executives to the Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, is part of the disbursements in mining that will be made in the Argentina and that add up to almost 10,000 million dollars in 87 projects that are in different stages of development execution. Among them, lithium is the star due to its high demand.
“I appreciate the interest in investing in Argentina. For us it is very important to be able to develop mining in general and lithium in particular,” said Minister Kulfas. And he added: “The mining development policy has two fundamental aspects: on the one hand, it has to be a mining that takes care of the environment, that applies the best production techniques so that it develops in a sustainable manner; on the other hand, we want a mining that generate development in the region where it settles, that generate employment in the communities”.
What is the Tres Quebradas project like?
For the project three creeks The plant is scheduled to begin construction this year and go into production at the end of 2023.
It is a brine extraction and lithium carbonate production project located in Fiambalaprovince of Catamarca, 30 kilometers from the border with Chile, within the Triangle of Lithiumwhere almost 60% of the world’s reserves of this mineral are found.
In the exploratory phase, Liex had already produced maximum purity battery-grade lithium carbonate at its pilot plant.
Also the first gold producer in China Zijin They have plans to make other important investments in gold and copper in Argentina, so they are looking for advanced projects to do so.
Zijin Mining Group is a Chinese conglomerate engaged in the exploration, exploitation and development of mining properties and projects around the world, mainly gold, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, iron and other base metals.