[institutional Analysis] Top of Qinghai-Tibet-Summary of Lithium extraction from Salt Lake in China

Salt lakes in China are mainly distributed to the north of the 500mm waterline, and are divided into Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Salt Lake, Northwest Salt Lake, Northeast Salt Lake and Eastern scattered Salt Lake according to their region and formation. Of the 86 special salt lakes in China, 80 are located in the Qinghai-Tibet Salt Lake area, and the salt lake resources on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are at the top of the list.

The mg / Li ratio of Qinghai-Tibet Salt Lake is relatively high, and different types of salt lakes correspond to different technical paths. Except for Zabuye Salt Lake, the mg-Li ratio of other salt lakes in China is much higher than that of South American salt lakes. On the other hand, the enterprises that master the salt lake resources are constantly looking for the most suitable technology according to the characteristics of the salt lake. Among them, adsorption method is mainly used in chloride type Chaerhan salt lake, the ratio of magnesium to lithium in Chaerhan salt lake is high, and adsorption method is used to extract lithium in salt lake shares and Tibetan shares, while membrane fa, magnesium sulfate type salt lake magnesium sulfate type magnesium sulfate salt lake is lower than Chaerhan salt lake, and membrane fa is mainly used to extract lithium in production enterprises. The carbonate type Zabuye Salt Lake in Tibet mainly uses salting-out method (solar pond crystallization method). Zabuye has the most favorable conditions, with a magnesium-lithium ratio of only 0.01. It mainly uses salting-out method (solar pool crystallization method) to extract lithium. At present, all types of salt lakes have achieved mass production, and the technical paths of lithium extraction from salt lakes have been established.

To build a world-class salt lake industrial base, Qinghai Salt Lake Resources re-evaluate Qinghai Province's "Plan and Action Plan for Building a World-class Salt Lake Industrial Base" passed the review on May 20. We suggest that attention should be paid to: 1) Salt Lake shares (resuming listing): the existing potash production capacity is 5 million tons, fully benefiting from the continuous upward price of potash; Holding Lanke Lithium Industry, the daily output of Lithium Carbonate has reached 100 tons before Lanke, and the production line of 20,000 tons of Lithium Carbonate is expected to reach production by the end of the year. 2) Zangge Holdings: the production line of 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate in Zangge lithium industry reached production within the year; holding Zijin Julong Copper Mine, Julong plans to produce 165000 tons of copper per year in the first phase, and plans to put into production by the end of the 21st.

The technology of extracting lithium from original halogen has made a breakthrough, and the new pattern of extracting lithium from salt lakes around the world has adopted adsorption technology, which has realized the one-step separation of lithium from potassium, sodium, magnesium, boron and other elements. the popularization of lithium extraction from original halogen will promote lithium extraction from salt lakes around the world.

The main results are as follows: 1) Lithium extraction from original halogen is not unfamiliar, but overseas salt lakes lack adsorption experience. The extraction of lithium from raw halogen is not novel. We track many salt lakes around the world and are promoting DLE technology before Minmetals. However, overseas salt lake resource endowment, lithium extraction technology is mostly precipitation method, and the exploitation of resources is relatively simple (mainly from Salar de Atacama, Olaroz and Salar del Hombre Muerto), salt lake adsorption experience is far inferior to domestic enterprises.

2) compared with the preferential extraction of potassium, the extraction of lithium from original halogen will significantly increase the recovery rate of lithium. In the past, the traditional lithium extraction method required to extract potassium first and then lithium, a large number of lithium resources were passively removed from the salt lake system with carnallite, and the comprehensive recovery of lithium was low.

On the other hand, the lithium extraction from raw brine is realized by adsorption, and the comprehensive yield of lithium resources is more than doubled.

3) the construction cycle has been significantly shortened, and the problem of financing for overseas salt lakes may be solved. Green space resources enterprises can only obtain capital financing during the upward period of lithium price, while the old brine lithium production line has large capital expenditure and long construction time, which leads to the last round of salt lake production has been in the downward cycle of lithium price, and the rate of return on capital is on the low side. Affected by this, this round of overseas capital wait-and-see mood is strong, many green space salt lake projects lack of capital investment, the popularization of original brine lithium extraction technology can effectively shorten the construction cycle, or will promote a new round of capital expenditure on global salt lake resources.

Under this discussion, we believe that the extraction of lithium from raw brine will significantly promote the financing and development of global salt lakes.

1) the leading adsorbent for lithium extraction from salt lakes in the world, Lanxiao Technology has been promoted in 6 pilot projects overseas. 2) owns high-quality salt lake resources at home and abroad, and has released salt lake shares with new production capacity in the past 22 years, Mount Qomolangma in Tibet, and Ganfeng lithium industry. 3) overseas enterprises: Lithium Americas (NYSE), Neo Lithium (TSXV) and Galaxy Resources (ASX) with high-quality salt lake resources.

Risk hint: the risk that the development of new energy vehicles is not as expected, the risk that salt lake lithium extraction technology is difficult to meet the production demand, and the risk of substantial changes in the supply and demand structure of lithium resources.