The highly watched "sky-high lithium mine" Snowy has reached a critical period in its development progress. In early July, the environmental impact assessment documents for the lithium mine construction project of Yajiang County Snowy Mining Development Co., Ltd. were accepted by the Ganzi Prefecture Ecological Environment Bureau, marking that, after a tortuous journey and eventual acquisition by CATL, this super lithium mine has finally entered the substantive development stage, following ownership clarification and preliminary demonstration.
The ownership of the Snowy lithium mine stands as one of the most dramatic commercial events in China's lithium ore resource scramble in recent years. In May 2022, a 54.2857% equity stake in Snowy Mining was auctioned on JD.com's auction platform with a starting bid of only 3.35 million yuan. After five days and nights and over 3,000 bids, it was hammered down at a staggering 2 billion yuan, only to end in forfeiture by the winning bidder. In November of the same year, the auction moved to Alibaba's platform and was relaunched, with the starting bid raised to 200 million yuan and a circuit breaker mechanism introduced. Nine consecutive rounds thereafter were terminated upon hitting the ceiling price, highlighting the fierce competition. Ultimately, the out-of-court bankruptcy reorganization process proved decisive—CATL, with a reorganization plan exceeding 6.4 billion yuan, defeated GCL Energy Technology Co., Ltd., which already held a 45.71% stake, and was designated by the court as the first-priority reorganization investor. The reorganization plan was approved in January 2023, and the business registration change was officially completed in March, bringing this sky-high lithium mine into CATL's portfolio.
After being incorporated into the CATL fold, Snowy Mining's pre-development work advanced efficiently. In November 2023, the development and utilization plan commissioned by the enterprise to China ENFI Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. was completed. On December 1, it passed the review by the Oil and Gas Resources Strategy Research Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the review results were publicly announced on the Ministry of Natural Resources' official website in January 2024. According to the announcement, the mine holds retained ore resources of 24.924 million mt, with an average lithium oxide grade of 1.34%.
In July 2024, the enterprise officially obtained the mining license (License No.: C1000002024085218000717) issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources. The mining area covers 1.1365 square kilometers, with extracted minerals including lithium, beryllium, niobium, and tantalum ores. Open-pit mining method is adopted, with a production scale of 1.5 million mt/year, and a mining elevation ranging from +4,450 meters to +4,154 meters.
In January 2025, the project received the "Approval for the Yajiang Snowy New Energy Lithium Mine Development Project of Yajiang County Snowy Mining Development Co., Ltd." (Sichuan Development and Reform Industry [2025] No. 4) from the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission. The Dechala Bar lithium mine officially obtained provincial-level approval, satisfying the requirement in the "Market Access Negative List (2025)" that "development of non-ferrous metal mines shall be approved by provincial governments." This EIA acceptance means the project is now just one step away from full-scale construction.
This EIA is targeted at the Dechala Bar spodumene mining project. The construction scope includes new open-pit mining fields (308 and 309 stopes), a waste dump, a civil explosives storage facility, a mining industrial site, roads, and supporting public and auxiliary facilities. After completion, the mining scale will be 1.5 million mt/year, the waste dump effective capacity will be 42 million m³, and the topsoil stockpile effective capacity will be 820,000 m³.
Notably, to minimize ecological impact, achieve intensive and economical land use, and reduce development costs, the Garze Prefectural Party Committee and Prefectural Government have determined an integrated lithium resources development plan featuring “co-construction of tailings ponds in nearby relatively concentrated areas” and “co-construction, co-management, and co-use of public facilities such as water, electricity, and roads by enterprises.” Under this plan, the Dechelengba Lithium Mine will build its own mining and processing projects, while the tailings pond and public facilities will be jointly constructed and shared with Tianfu Lithium Industry (Maiji Tantalum-Lithium Mine prospecting rights) and Tianqi Lithium (Cuola and Shaotangou Spodumene Mine mining rights) in the same mining area. Each project will undergo separate approvals and independent environmental impact assessments. This innovative model reflects a prudent approach to ecological protection in plateau mining areas and explores a new path for intensive development of large domestic mines.
As the EIA acceptance announcement progresses, this “sky-high priced lithium mine,” which experienced twists and turns before eventually falling into the hands of CATL, is accelerating its shift from a capital story to production reality and is expected to inject strong resource momentum into Sichuan’s lithium battery industry chain.
From an industry tracking perspective, this progress at the Sinowei Lithium Mine broadly aligns with market expectations for the timetable of China’s lithium ore growth release in H2 2026. The current lithium market is in a game window of “strong reality, weak expectations”—downstream lithium battery production schedules continue to rise and inventory destocking persists, providing bottom support for lithium prices, while loosening mine supply and expectations of production resumptions in the longer term cap upside room. As a greenfield project, Sinowei’s 1.5 million mt/year mining and processing scale has already been included in SMM’s estimates of China’s supply growth from 2026 to 2027 in previous industry supply-demand balance tables. Therefore, the progression of this project—from mineral rights acquisition, review of development and utilization plans, to EIA acceptance—is more a realization of capacity within expectations rather than a supply-side growth exceeding expectations. The market has already fairly fully priced in the commissioning pace of such large mines. The real marginal variable going forward remains the actual ore output progress and the pace of profit restoration in the lithium chemicals processing segment.
![[SMM Analysis] China's Lithium Raw Material Imports Near 80kt LCE in June](https://imgqn.smm.cn/usercenter/ezoBg20251217171730.jpg)
