South Korea's POSCO to build lithium hydroxide plant in Argentina by H1 2024

South Korea's POSCO plans to build a lithium hydroxide plant at the Salar del Hombre Muerto salt lake in northern Argentina by the first half of 2024, the steelmaker said Dec. 16.

POSCO expects to invest about $830 million in the plant, which will have a production capacity of 25,000 mt/year. The plant will process lithium from the salt lake, which is estimated to have 13.5 million mt of lithium reserves, sufficient to manufacture batteries for about 370 million electric vehicles.

Construction of the POSCO-Argentina plant is expected to begin in H1 2022 and the steelmaker is considering an expansion to double its production capacity by 2025. According to the steelmaker, 25,000 mt of lithium hydroxide is enough to power 600,000 EVs.

POSCO will also start construction of a 43,000 mt/year plant at Gwangyang in South Korea in H1 2022 to extract lithium hydroxide, which should begin operations by October 2023. This plant will use about 315,000 mt/year of spodumene concentrate from the Pilgangoora mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which is expected to begin production in H2 2023.

Spodumene is a vital material used to manufacture lithium chemicals that go into batteries for EVs. The 43,000 mt of lithium hydroxide is enough for about 1 million EVs.

POSCO also expects to complete construction of a 12,000 mt/year plant to recycle nickel, lithium, and cobalt from rechargeable batteries in South Korea in H2 2022.

The new plants fall under POSCO's plan to have 220,000 mt/year of lithium hydroxide capacity by 2030 and form the initial steps of parent POSCO Group to set up a holding company whereby its steel business will be split off on March 1, 2022.