Eramet delivers first lithium carbonate from Centenario DLE plant in Argentina

24 Dec 2024 14:30 CET

Paris, December 24^th, 2024 - 2:30pm

PRESS RELEASE

Eramet delivers first lithium carbonate from Centenario DLE plant in Argentina

Eramet announces that it has delivered first lithium carbonate production at its newly commissioned Centenario plant, located in Salta Province, in Argentina.

The Centenario plant is the first facility to implement at an industrial scale Eramet’s advanced Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) technology. This industry leading technology delivers sustainable and highly efficient lithium carbonate suitable for electric vehicle battery applications. Centenario first plant is designed to extract and produce 24,000 t/year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, and at full capacity should be positioned in the 1st quartile of the lithium industry cost-curve. First lithium carbonate production has been achieved less than three years after Eramet started the construction of the plant.

Total drainable mineral resources of the Centenario-Ratones salar amount to more than 15 Mt of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (“LCE”)¹, with an average concentration of 407 mg/L of lithium contained in the brine. This worldclass resource is large enough to support long-term growth optionality for production capacity to above 75kt-LCE/year.

On October 24^th, the Group had announced it had regained full ownership of its flagship lithium business in Argentina, buying-out the 49.9% share of its partner in their joint-venture Eramine which fully owns the Centenario plant.

Christel Bories, Chair and CEO of Eramet group:

• The start of our lithium production at Centenario in Argentina represents a key milestone for the diversification of the Group into metals for the energy transition, which will place Eramet as the first European company to produce lithium carbonate at an industrial scale. I would like to thank and congratulate our teams for their strong commitment and their determination in delivering this DLE project within an impressive timeframe compared to similar projects in the region, despite the technical, logistical and meteorological challenges associated with its location at 4,000 meters of altitude in the remote Andean Highlands. In 2025, we will ramp up production at the plant, aiming at becoming a key global player in the sustainable production of lithium. 

Calendar

19.02.2025: Publication of 2024 Group annual results

24.04.2025: Publication of 2025 Group first-quarter turnover

ABOUT ERAMET

Eramet transforms the Earth’s mineral resources to provide sustainable and responsible solutions to the growth of the industry and to the challenges of the energy transition.

Its employees are committed to this through their civic and contributory approach in all the countries where the mining and metallurgical group is present.

Manganese, nickel, mineral sands, and lithium: Eramet recovers and develops metals that are essential to the construction of a more sustainable world.

As a privileged partner of its industrial clients, the Group contributes to making robust and resistant infrastructures and constructions, more efficient means of mobility, safer health tools and more efficient telecommunications devices.

Fully committed to the era of metals, Eramet’s ambition is to become a reference for the responsible transformation of the Earth’s mineral resources for living well together.

www.eramet.com

1 15,120 Mt-LCE, Measured + Indicated + Inferred, as of January 1^st, 2024.

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• 2024 12 24 - Eramet PR - 1st lithium at Centenario - EN VF