Production of Lithium Hydroxide to Start in 2023
POSCO Holdings will invest about 6 trillion won in the lithium business by 2030, said Lee Kyung-seop, head of the company's rechargeable battery material business, in a second-quarter earnings conference call on July 21.
“We will invest up to 1.5 trillion won each year,” Lee said. “We will be able to finance the investment with the earnings to be generated by our Argentine brine lithium plant and Gwangyang lithium plant from 2025.”
POSCO Group broke ground for a brine lithium plant in Argentina in March. When completed in the first half of 2024, the plant is expected to produce 25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide per year. POSCO Argentina, a subsidiary of POSCO Holdings, is in charge of the construction, operation and financing of the lithium plant.
POSCO Group also plans to produce lithium hydroxide at the Yulchon Industrial Complex in Gwangyang, Korea by using lithium ore from Pilbara Minerals in Australia beginning from 2023. POSCO-Pilbara Lithium Solution is building a lithium hydroxide production plant with an annual capacity of 43,000 tons. It will be completed in October 2023.