By : Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, June 14, 2022
Ganfeng Lithium, the leading Chinese producer of the metal for batteries, and its subsidiary Litio Minera Argentina have begun this week the construction phase of their Mariana lithium project, located in the Argentine province of Salta (northwest).
After laying the first stone in Salta with local authorities, company representatives met with Argentine President Alberto Fernández and the relevant cabinet ministers, who said the project should be considered a milestone for the province and the region.
The Mariana project is located in the Llullaillaco salt flat, which is less than 140 kilometers south of the Atacama salt flat in Chile, the largest lithium brine deposit in the world, so the Ganfeng project shares some commonalities with existing brine operations in the Atacama desert.
Both the Atacama and Llullaillaco salt flats are located in the Puna region, which has some of the lowest recorded rainfall and highest evaporation rates in the world, making it an ideal location for a concentrating solar process. naturally efficient.
Based on a feasibility study completed in 2019, the Mariana project has a measured and indicated resource of 4,410,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent and an inferred resource of 786,000 tons of LCE. This makes it one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, competing with Lithium America and Ganfeng’s Cauchari-Olaroz projects, Orocobre’s Olaroz, Advantage Lithium’s Cauchari and Lithium South’s Hombre Muerto. Once fully operational, total production should reach 20,000 tons of lithium chloride per year.
Following the approval in 2021 of Litio Minera Argentina’s environmental impact report, the plan is to develop 1,700 hectares of evaporation ponds and two brine processing plants. The ponds will be built on the surface of the salt flat without using external input material.
According to Ganfeng, the total investment in the project amounts to 600 million dollars. This sum includes the construction of an off-grid solar park with 120 MW of solar panels and 288 MWp of battery storage, with a planned expansion to 150MW of solar panels and 360MWp of battery storage, all produced by the Chinese company. .
This material from the EnergíaBolivia Portal was edited for clarity, style and length.
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