Recently, an investor inquired with Sichuan Energy Power on an investor interaction platform about the Lijiagou mine. The company stated that the Lijiagou lithium mine project had basically reached its design capacity by the end of August 2025. Currently, the project's products are lithium spodumene run-of-mine ore and lithium concentrate, and it does not currently involve the mining, processing, or sales of associated rare metals. Regarding rare metals like tantalum, niobium, and tin associated with the Lijiagou lithium ore, the company clarified that the Lijiagou project focuses on mining and processing lithium spodumene ore, with products being lithium spodumene ROM ore and lithium concentrate, and it currently does not involve the mining, processing, or sales of associated rare metals.

On November 26, during an institutional research session, Sichuan Energy Power disclosed more details: Regarding the market's focus on plans for increasing reserves and production capacity, the company stated that the Lijiagou project possesses potential, and relevant work is currently under study; any progress will be disclosed according to regulations. The construction of lithium salt production capacity is advancing simultaneously. The company's total designed lithium salt production capacity is 45,000 tonnes per year. Among this, Dingsheng Lithium's 15,000-tonne project is already operational, and the newly built De'a Lithium Industry annual 30,000-tonne lithium salt project successfully produced qualified battery-grade lithium salt products on July 31, 2025, and achieved its first sales. Regarding the allocation of lithium mineral resources, the company clarified that sales will follow market principles, while also considering the overall lithium battery industry chain business arrangements and economic benefits for reasonable allocation. Lithium product pricing is determined through negotiation with customers, referencing Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) lithium product prices and futures prices.

In fact, the company had already announced in August that, as of that month, the Lijiagou lithium spodumene mining project had successfully achieved its design capacity target of processing 4,200 tonnes of ore per day and producing approximately 720 tonnes of concentrate per day. This marked its official entry into a new phase of efficient and stable production and operation.

Over six months, through interconnected trial runs, production defect elimination, in-depth optimization of flotation process parameters, and a series of key technical modifications and innovations, Sichuan Energy Power successfully reached the design capacity target. The production scale is set at an annual output of 1.05 million tonnes of ROM ore and approximately 180,000 tonnes of concentrate annually. According to company representatives, the focus is on improving the capacity utilization rate to achieve long-term, stable production. Furthermore, the daily ore processing capacity of the Lijiagou mining project still has potential for further increase, possibly gradually rising to 6,000 tonnes in the future.

The Story of Asia's Largest Lithium Mine

The Lijiagou lithium mine, located in Jinchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, is the first large-scale, super-large lithium spodumene mine in China to enter substantive development. Its development journey profoundly reflects the path of China's lithium battery industry towards gaining independent control over upstream core resources.

Geological exploration work for the Lijiagou lithium spodumene mine began last century. Early-stage exploration had preliminarily confirmed the existence of lithium mineralization zones in the area, but its immense resource potential was not immediately developed due to technological limitations, market conditions, and transportation factors at the time. Entering the 21st century, with the emergence of the global new energy vehicle industry and the rise in demand for lithium batteries, the strategic importance of lithium resources became prominent. During this period, institutions like the Geochemical Exploration Team of the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources conducted detailed investigation and exploration of the Lijiagou mining area. The exploration results confirmed that Lijiagou is a super-large lithium spodumene deposit. According to the "Verification Report on Lithium Resource Reserves of the Lijiagou Lithium Spodumene Mine in Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province" issued by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Natural Resources, it possesses massive reserves (38.812 million tonnes of proven ore resources) and high grade (average lithium oxide grade of approximately 1.30%), making it one of the largest single lithium spodumene deposits in China and even Asia, laying the resource foundation for subsequent commercial development.

In January 2018, A-share listed company Yahua Group announced that it, together with Sichuan Energy Power, had acquired part of the equity in Sichuan Guoli Lithium Materials Co., Ltd., thereby indirectly obtaining the mining rights for the Lijiagou lithium spodumene mine. This transaction marked the formal transition of the Lijiagou lithium mine from the geological exploration phase to the commercial development phase, with Yahua Group and Sichuan Energy Power as the main development entities.

In the following years, the Lijiagou lithium mine mining and processing project commenced construction. Due to the mine's location in high-altitude mountainous terrain with complex conditions, the construction of infrastructure (such as roads and power supply) and the processing plant faced significant challenges. The project was designed to process 1.05 million tonnes of ROM ore annually, producing approximately 180,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate per year, making it the largest lithium mining and processing project in China by investment scale at the time.

After several years of construction, the Lijiagou lithium mine successfully commenced trial feeding and produced its first batch of lithium concentrate in 2023. This milestone event marked the official birth of China's first large-scale, modern lithium spodumene production line, breaking the slow development pattern of domestic lithium resources (particularly hard-rock lithium) and providing an important source of local raw materials for domestic lithium salt processors.

Currently, the Lijiagou lithium mine has entered a phase of stable production and operation. The lithium concentrate it produces primarily supplies shareholder Yahua Group and other leading domestic lithium salt producers, taking a key step in reducing the Chinese lithium industry's dependence on imported spodumene.