As the leader of lithium extraction from salt lakes in China, Tibet Mining currently owns the exclusive mining right of Zabuye Salt Lake in Tibet, which is the third largest lithium mine in the world and the largest salt lake in Asia. The company signed a 100-ton lithium hydroxide pilot contract with Jiuwu Hi-Tech. After the successful pilot test, the construction of a 10,000-ton lithium hydroxide project will be considered later.

Statistics show that Tibet Mining Development Co., Ltd. is the largest comprehensive mineral product development company in Tibet, mainly engaged in the mining, processing, sales and trade of chromite and lithium ore. The main products are chromite, lithium ore, lithium and its compounds. The company's proven lithium reserves are 1.841 million tons. It is a special comprehensive large-scale salt lake deposit rich in lithium, boron, potassium solid and liquid coexisting. In recent years, the trend of electrification has swept the world, and the investment in the new energy track has become more and more popular. As early as 2017, China has become the world's largest producer of power batteries, and its production capacity is still increasing. At the same time, the supply and demand of upstream lithium resources are also becoming tight, and lithium has become the most valuable strategic resource.

The global lithium hydroxide market may be in short supply by 2025, and it is believed that the market needs to plan for more lithium hydroxide capacity.

However, the current supply of lithium hydroxide is seriously stratified. Manufacturers with overseas resources underwriting and certified by downstream enterprises are in short supply of lithium salt, while small manufacturers whose products are of poor quality and determine the source of lithium ore may face the test of supply of concentrate or even suspension of production. The lithium hydroxide market will further concentrate on large enterprises.

In terms of price, as of February 18, 2022, the average price of domestic industrial-grade lithium hydroxide enterprises was 380,000.00 yuan / ton, an increase of 18.13% compared with Monday's price and a 40.74% increase compared with the price on January 18; The price of battery-grade lithium hydroxide was 410,000.00 yuan / ton, an increase of 115,000 yuan over the same period last month. Relevant agencies said that the overall operating rate of the market is currently around 60%, the supply side is tight, the downstream demand is performing better, and the lithium hydroxide market is running strongly.

Relevant enterprises continue to speed up production capacity layout. On February 10, Fangyuan Co., Ltd. announced that the company plans to issue convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects to raise funds of no more than 660 million yuan. After deducting the issuance costs, the net proceeds will be used to produce 50,000 tons of high-end ternary lithium batteries per year. Precursors (NCA, NCM) and 10,000 tons of battery lithium hydroxide project.

On February 8, 2022, Tianhua Chaojing disclosed a fixed increase plan, and planned to raise no more than 4.6 billion yuan for the construction project of Sichuan Tianhua Times Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. with an annual output of 60,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, Yibin City The first phase of VPower Lithium Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. with an annual output of 25,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide project, acquisition of 7% equity of Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. and supplementary working capital. After the completion of the above two projects, Tianhua Ultra-clean has added an annual production capacity of 85,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

Industry institutions predict that the global electrification process is accelerating, and the spot supply is available, superimposed on the impact of overseas epidemics, the supply of lithium mines in Australia is lower than expected, and the prosperity of the lithium resources industry is expected to remain high. Editor/Sang Xiaomei