POSCO announced on August 27th that it had signed a contract with Australia’s Galaxy Resources to acquire the lithium mining rights of Argentina. The lithium mine acquired by POSCO is located in the northern area of the Salar del ‘Hombre Muerto’ salt flat in Argentina; it is about 17,500 hectares of land and is about one-third the size of Seoul. The lithium plant is expected to produce 25,000 tons of lithium per year for the next 20 years, and the acquisition of the mining area will be worth 280 million dollars.
Galaxy Resources is an Australian resource development company established in 1973 and is part of Australia’s ‘S&P/ASX 200’, which is compromised of the top 200 listed companies in terms of representationally, liquidity and transaction ability. Currently, lithium exploration and development activities are underway in Australia, Canada, and Argentina.
In February, the company made a deal with Australia’s Pilbara Minerals to purchase lithium minerals to produce 30,000 tons of lithium per year. With the two deals, POSCO will be able to solve the raw material supply and demand problem, and from 2021, it will be able to produce 55,000 tons of lithium per year.
POSCO plans to complete the construction of the lithium plant in the salt flat plant in Argentina as soon as the acquisition is completed by the end of this year and to produce lithium starting from 2021 by applying its own lithium direct extraction technology.
Lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate produced locally will be supplied as raw materials to POSCO ESM, the company that makes cathode materials, and POSCO Chemtech’s cathode materials are expected to further strengthen POSCO’s competitiveness in the secondary battery materials business. Furthermore, it is expected to contribute to the stabilization of the supply and demand of raw materials to secondary battery companies in South Korea.