General Discussion Topics, page-140125

Albemarle were set to spend $US1.3 billion to build a lithium hydroxide refinery in South Carolina.

It might not have been the cost or the difficulty they were having getting permitting that turned them off.

The emergence of LFP and LMFP battery technology may also have played a part.

They would know better than most that lithium carbonate is overtaking lithium hydroxide as the preferred chemical.

In Qinzhou they have refineries that do both.

In Australia they have a billion dollar lithium hydroxide plant struggling to get to nameplate.

Building another one in the US would see them over invested in lithium hydroxide.

A good way around that would be to spend half of what they were going to spend in South Carolina on the NAL lithium carbonate plant.

A fully integrated mine and refinery in a good jurisdiction ticks all of the boxes.