Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium has completed a major lithium processing plant in Mali – defying security challenges, a strict new mining code and a lithium supply market glut.
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China’s largest lithium producer, Ganfeng announced that the first phase of its Goulamina lithium mine, in the southern region of Bougouni, had gone live in mid-December. It has a planned annual capacity to produce 506,000 tonnes of lithium, which will grow to 1 million tonnes in the second phase.
Considered one of the world’s largest deposits of the critical mineral, it is estimated that the mine could be explored for more than 23 years, producing 15.6 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate over that period.
Lithium is a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and electronics.
At the launch of the plant, Mali’s transitional President Assimi Goita described his country’s cooperation with China as a “strategic and sincere” partnership. Goita said the lithium mine is extremely important for the West African nation and the launch of the processing plant “marks a significant step forward in the exploitation of the country’s natural resources”.
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Chinese ambassador to Mali Chen Zhihong, who attended the inauguration ceremony, said the Goulamina mine “is a new example of win-win cooperation”.