(Reuters) – China’s Ganfeng Lithium, one of the world’s top lithium producers, said on Thursday it would build a plant in its home province of Jiangxi, China, to produce 7,000 tonnes per year of lithium metal for the burgeoning solid-state battery sector.
Solid-state batteries use solid electrolytes rather than flammable liquid ones, making them safer than the lithium-ion batteries now commonly used in electric vehicles, and have a higher energy density.
Ganfeng said in a filing it signed an investment contract with Yichun Economic and Technological Development Zone to build a plant in Yichun city, Jiangxi Province, China, and would set up production lines for distillation and purification of lithium metal as well as anode material for solid-state lithium batteries.
It did not put a value on the contract, but a statement from the Yichun government said the project would involve investment of 2.2 billion yuan ($336 million).
Ganfeng, which has an existing lithium metal production base in Yichun, said the city had “favourable conditions” for capacity expansion and development.
The company said last week it aimed to raise annual lithium production capacity roughly fivefold to at least 600,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in the future.
($1 = 6.5500 Chinese yuan renminbi)
