Battery companies compete to "compete" to speed up the development of domestic lithium resources

In the downstream power, energy storage battery demand growth situation, the domestic lithium resources development began to speed up, including head battery enterprises, materials enterprises and mineral resources enterprises are actively carrying out resource development and layout.

A few days ago, Sichuan Kant New Energy Resources Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kant New Energy"), which is controlled by Sichuan Times New Energy Resources Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ningde Times, was established with a registered capital of 2 billion yuan. the scope of business includes mineral processing, mineral washing and processing, metal ore sales, precious metal smelting (except rare earths, radioactive minerals, tungsten) and emerging energy technology research and development.

As early as February this year, Sichuan Times has signed a joint venture agreement with Ganzi Prefecture Investment Group, Yibin Sanjiang Huida Company, and Sichuan Tianfu Mining to speed up the exploration and development of lithium resources in Sichuan and increase the supply of lithium resources.

The establishment of Kant New Energy marks the beginning of the "battle" for high-quality lithium mineral resources in Sichuan in the Ningde era. Prior to this, Ningde era has set up lithium mining related companies in Jiangxi, Guizhou and other provinces.

Also racing against the clock to seize lithium resources in Sichuan is BYD.

Sichuan Ludi Mining Co., Ltd. was established on March 30. The company has two major shareholders, Sichuan Luqiao Construction Group and BYD, which own 70% and 30% respectively.

Earlier, on March 22nd, Shengxin LiNeng issued an announcement that it planned to raise no more than 3 billion yuan from BYD and other companies. BYD will further increase the procurement of lithium products, while ensuring its own demand for raw materials, helping Shengxin Lithium can expand sales scale and improve sales performance. It is worth noting that Shengxin Lithium can own shares in many lithium ore resources in Sichuan.

In addition, Rongjie, which has a "close relationship" with BYD, operates lithium resources mainly in Sichuan and is currently under intensive mining.

Also on March 30, Honeycomb Energy and BASF Shanshan Strategic Investment Hunan Yongshan Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yongshan Lithium Industry"), will each hold a 10% stake in the latter after signing the contract. During the cooperation period, the three parties will reach strategic cooperation in the operation of industrial capital, the supply of lithium products and the development of lithium mineral resources.

Last year, Guoxuan Hi-Tech started construction of lithium carbonate mining and separation projects with an annual production capacity of 50, 000 tons and 7.5 million tons in Yichun, while investing in lithium carbonate projects in Yifeng County and Fengxin County, Jiangxi Province, and reached a strategic cooperation with Salt Lake shares to develop lithium resources in Qinghai Salt Lake.

Yiwei LiNeng acquired shares in lithium mining enterprises such as Jinkunlun and Jinhai Lithium Industry, reached strategic cooperation with Lanxiao Science and Technology, and actively participated in the development and utilization of lithium resources in Jieze Chaka Salt Lake in Tibet.

It can be seen that head battery companies, including Ningde Times, BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Honeycomb Energy, Xin Wanda and so on, have been involved in the development of domestic lithium resources through investment, capital increase, shareholding, acquisition or other means.

The logic behind head battery enterprises to strengthen the development of upstream resources is that, under the background of the rapid development of global automobile electrification and energy storage industry, the demand for upstream lithium resources is rising rapidly, and head battery enterprises have carried out hundreds of GWh battery capacity layouts. In order to stabilize production, it is imperative to achieve a stable supply of upstream lithium resources. Second, since last year, the price of lithium resources has risen rapidly, resulting in a rise in the price of battery raw materials, a sharp increase in production costs of battery enterprises, and a lot of pressure.

At present, domestic lithium consumption mainly depends on imports, and lithium extraction from lithium mines and salt lakes accounts for about 70% of domestic demand in 2021. But the price of lithium resources abroad is still rising crazily. It is reported that recently, Changxie spodumene (lithium oxide 6% content, CIF price) was 3150 US dollars / ton, African spodumene transaction price (FOB) has risen to 5000 US dollars / ton, over-reliance on overseas, there is obviously not much room to reduce costs.

In this regard, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that in order to meet the production needs of power batteries, it is necessary to appropriately speed up the development of domestic lithium resources.

In addition to the above-mentioned battery companies are very active in investing and buying shares in lithium resources enterprises. Companies with lithium resources will not lag behind.

It is reported that Lijiagou spodumene mine located in Sichuan is called the largest spodumene mine in Asia which has been proved and obtained mining license. In February, Chuaneng Power said in response to questions from investors that it was making every effort to speed up construction and mine the lithium pyroxene mine in Lijiagou, Sichuan Province.

On April 7, Jiangte Motor announced that the company plans to invest 2 billion yuan with its wholly-owned subsidiary Jiangxi Jiangte Mining Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangte Mining") to build a new lithium ore mining and separation project with an annual production capacity of 3 million tons and an annual production capacity of 20, 000 tons of lithium salt. speed up the development of lithium mica ore resources in Yichun.

According to Jiangte Motor, the company has two mining rights and five exploration rights in Yichun area, holding or controlling more than 100 million tons of lithium ore resources.

In addition, including Ganfeng lithium industry, Tianqi lithium industry, Salt Lake shares, Yongxing Materials, Yahua Group and other upstream enterprises are also stepping up the development and layout of domestic lithium resources.

Li Kun, chairman of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, said that in the next few years, with the rapid progress of the Yichun lithium mica project, the improvement of the lithium extraction capacity of Qinghai brine, the exploitation of spodumene resources in Sichuan, and the progress of battery recycling technology, the demand for imported lithium resources will be greatly reduced.