Eramet has produced lithium carbonate at its new Centenario plant in Argentina’s Salta province. It is the first European company to do so at an industrial scale.
Eramet’s chair and CEO, Christel Bories, said Friday that starting lithium production at Centenario is a “key milestone” in the group’s push to diversify into metals for the energy transition. The company achieved the start of production less than three years after Eramet started the construction of the first plant.
The Centenario plant uses Eramet’s DLE technology. It claims it can produce “sustainable and highly efficient lithium carbonate for electric vehicle batteries.”
The Centenario-Ratones salar has over 15 million tonnes of lithium. Its brine has an average lithium concentration of 407 mg/L.
This world-class resource would be large enough to support long-term growth, Eramet said. It could raise production capacity to over 75,000 tonnes of LCE a year.
Eramet said the first plant at Centenario is to produce 24,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year. At full capacity, it should be in the 1st quartile of the lithium industry’s cost curve.
On Oct. 24, the French miner announced it had regained full ownership of its flagship lithium business in Argentina. It bought out its Chinese partner Tsingshan’s 49.9% stake for US$699 million.
The Centenario project was attractive despite a drop in lithium prices. Full ownership would let Eramet decide how to pursue a planned second production facility, Bories said at the time of the deal.
