Rio Tinto realizes battery-grade lithium production in California

Rio Tinto's demonstration plant at the boron mine in California began producing battery-grade lithium.

Rio Tinto has taken the next step to expand its breakthrough lithium production process in boron development. Battery-grade lithium is produced in a demonstration plant that aims to recover key minerals and extract additional value from mine waste dumps that have been in operation for more than 90 years.

The design capacity of the demonstration plant is 10 tons of battery-grade lithium per year. The plant will operate throughout 2021 to optimize the process and provide the basis for a feasibility assessment by Rio Tinto (Rio Tinto) to gradually develop into a plant with an annual capacity of at least 5000 tons or enough to produce about 70000 electric vehicle batteries.