Eramet buys out Tsingshan from Argentina lithium project
French miner Eramet will buy back Tsingshan Holding Group’s stake in an Argentinian lithium project, marking a rare retreat for the Chinese conglomerate from an expansion beyond its core nickel business.
Eramet will buy out the Chinese stainless steel conglomerate’s 49.9% interest in Eramine Sudamerica assets, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The purchase will have a $699-million net cash impact, the miner said, without giving further details.
The move comes amid a slump in lithium prices that is affecting the sector at large. Earlier this month, Rio Tinto agreed to buy Arcadium Lithium for $6.7-billion, its biggest purchase in almost two decades. In August, Australia’s Pilbara Minerals took over a project in Brazil, marking its first international expansion.
For Tsingshan — the world’s top nickel producer — the sale represents an unusual pullback from its rapid diversification into the broader battery space. The conglomerate had been developing lithium assets in Africa and South America, while also looking to set up plants in Indonesia and enter the US storage market.
The company’s billionaire founder Xiang Guangda said in the statement it would support a smooth and constructive handover of the assets to Eramet. The two firms also jointly run the world’s biggest nickel mine in Indonesia.
Eramine Sudamerica’s plant runs a direct extraction technology with a capacity to produce 24,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent a year, Eramet said in the statement. The brine deposits it draws from could support an estimated 75,000 tons of output a year, the company said.
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