Tianqi's Australian Lithium Plant Costs Double
- Tianqi's Kwinana lithium refinery has actually been postponed to 2022.
- Ganfeng to appoint 50,000 tons hydroxide plant in 2020.
China's Tianqi Lithium is encountering expense overruns and delays at its Kwinana refinery in Australia besides struggling to repay financial obligation. Tianqi's financial investment per lots of lithium hydroxide ($/ tLiOH) for Kwinana is 10 times greater than a comparable converter Ganfeng created in China.
On December 8, Tianqi announced a $1.4 billion manage IGO Ltd. The bargain will certainly supply $200 million to finish Kwinana Phase I by 2022, 4 years behind schedule. Initially revealed in 2016, Phase I (24,000 t LiOH) was to set you back $299 million as well as compensation by 2018. In 2019, Tianqi increased financial investment to $525 million as well as postponed it to 2020. By August 2020, Tianqi had to put Phase I on hold.
For contrast, Ganfeng's lithium hydroxide converters in China were much cheaper. Stage I of Mahong (20,000 t LiOH) was revealed in 2016 at $45 million (302 million yuan) and was appointed on schedule in 2018. Ganfeng then spent $72 million (500 million yuan) for Phase II (25,000 t LiOH), which was later raised to $113 million (766 million yuan) for 50,000 t LiOH.