Lithium Power International Ltd (fka LTHHF)

[Dr_Vonschellan]

Chinese_in Argentina_dupe Boric_into processing/shipping
their Argentinian-mined lithium in "easy-to-get-to" convenient Mejillones Chile sitting smack dab right on the Pacific Ocean coast https://www.latercera.com/pulso-pm/noticia/grupo-chino-que-construira-una-planta-en-mejillones-tambien-tratara-ahi-litio-proveniente-de-argentina/I7ZTTB5BOBDQ3IVRNDCF3ILQTE/
The Chinese in Argentina will ship their Argentinian lithium product due west back to China over nice straight Chilean taxpayer-paid paved concrete highways/railways rather than to Buenos Aires on the Atlantic side of Argentina and around the long southern tip of Argentina (ie Argentine Sea) to avoid the additional shipping costs (adding estimate US$2,100/mt)

Google English translation below:

Chinese group that will build a plant in Mejillones will also process lithium from Argentina
by Victor Guillou

A subsidiary of Tsinsgshan Holding Group was selected by CORFO to receive half of SQM's preferential quota, for just over 11,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, to develop value-added products. However, the production of the plant that will be built in Mejillones (port city on Pacific Ocean), projected at 120,000 metric tons of cathode material per year, considers the import of part of the raw material required from the other side of the mountain range (ref Argentina).

President Gabriel Boric had some relevant news prepared for his tour of China. From Beijing, the president communicated one of the advances linked to the government strategy for the development of lithium: the allocation of the second half of the quota of lithium carbonate produced by SQM . The process is part of the contract that the Chilean mining company maintains with CORFO until 2030, and which obliges it to deliver at a preferential price up to 25% of its theoretical lithium production to a specialized producer, selected by CORFO, to promote activities that add value of Chilean lithium.

The second selected proponent - after BYD, announced last April - turned out to be Yongqing Technology Co. Ltd. The company is a subsidiary of Tsinsgshan Holding Group , which controls 92% of its ownership, and stands as the 18th private company in China, and number 80 among the largest companies in the Asian giant, according to CORFO.

As detailed by the public body, the selected proposal, called “Phase 1: Antofagasta Global Green Lithium Eco Industrial Park. Lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) cathode material plant will require an estimated investment of US$233 million and plans to produce 120,000 metric tons of LFP-type cathode material (LiFePO4) annually in Chile. As previously explained in CORFO, LiFeP04 is the formula for lithium ferrophosphate and corresponds to an essential material for manufacturing cathodes for batteries.

The allocation corresponds to preferential access to 11,244 tons per year of battery grade lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) that were available on the market.
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However, to achieve the production capacity of lithium-ferrophosphate batteries projected by Tsingshang, the holding company will not only use the raw material extracted from the Salar de Atacama, but will also import lithium from one of its operations that it currently develops other side of the mountain range (ie in Argentina). The Asian giant is associated with the French company ERAMET in the Salar Centenario Ratones in Salta, Argentina, a consortium that expects to produce - in a first phase - 24 thousand tons of lithium carbonate, starting production in the second quarter of 2024.

Although the exact volume of imports of Argentine lithium that Tsinsgshan must import is unknown, the reported production capacity more than doubles what the first successful bidder who will have the same SQM quota will produce. This is because BYD Chile, after being awarded the same amount of lithium carbonate last April, announced that its project, in Antofagasta, was designed to produce 50,000 tons per year of cathode material of the LFP type (LiFePO4), using lithium carbonate as an input.

It should be remembered that CORFO's contracts with lithium producing companies in Chile also require the North American company Albemarle to deliver a quota of its production at a preferential price. CORFO announced that this process will be developed during the first quarter of 2024.
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Dear Michele's Mommy's Boy Gabby Boric, if the Chinese in Argentina will be saving US$2,100mt in shipping costs by sending their lithium due west to Mejillones Chile... would it be reasonable to expect that someone (ie some shady scammer) in your administration will pocket half of that savings "under the table" in personal commission(s)?

Boy with friends like you helping us poor downtrodden junior lithium miners here in Chile to get ahead we sure don't need any more enemies.

The Doctor