Tsingshan is preparing to construct an electrochemical plant in northwestern Argentina’s Jujuy province that will provide key inputs for lithium carbonate production, supplying both local industry as well as Chile and Bolivia.
The USD 120M alkali chlorine processing unit will be located in the Perico industrial park and will have a production capacity of 35,000t/y of sodium hydroxide and 100,000t/y of hydrogen chloride in the first phase.
The executive commented that these chemicals are not currently produced on an industrial scale in these countries, and “if they are produced, they are in very small quantities and not enough.”
In addition to supplying companies in the region with these chemicals, which are used to remove impurities and process lithium compounds into lithium carbonate, the plant will allow Tsingshan to consolidate its lithium value chain in Argentina.
The construction will take 18 months and will go ahead in spite of the troubled macroeconomic situation in Argentina.