@Nimingarra
I can't see that podcast on MoM YouTube channel. Do you have a link to that?
However I know that mine inner Mongolia. I'll give detailed info about it.
BUT THIS IS FALSE NEWS, I have to say in advance.
"
Asia's largest hard rock lithium mine opens in Inner Mongolia (KQ81) open pit grade 1.37% Li2O plus tin 0.94%!!"
Firstly we all know that lithium is abundant on Earth, however the problem is to extract in economically viable terms. Spodumene is the purest and easiest type of lithium oxide source for economically viable extracting. All other lithium sources are secondary and lesser quality ore types.
Even brines are the lithium deposits being very far from a primary deposit, however we extract lithium cheaply from them at the expense of very large amount of evaporated water into the atmosphere. But that water comes back as floods back to us anyway.
You can understand why hundreds of DLE projects (10s of types) can't be economically viable due to the high cost of DLE process as the water needs to be send back to the ground.
The reason I'm saying "economic viability" issue is that the mentioned mine as "Asia's largest hard rock lithium mine" which is false claim.
It is the Weilasituo mine.
Owned by "Inner Mongolia Weilasituo Mining Co., Ltd."Founded in November 2006 and went into commercial production in 2008 (other metals).
It is located in the southwestern Great Xing'an Range of Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China. It is known for more than 20 years and explored more than 7 years ago, lithium resource also defined at that time but could not be a major mine for lithium in China so far. But now, for the sake of fake news, it's being Asia's largest hard rock lithium mine and newly opens in Inner Mongolia..!
Here is the old news;
"Weilasituo lithium-tin mine unlikely to go into operation in 2020 - Asian Metal"
See..!
It was a lithium mine in 2020.
The company says itself that he lithium-tin polymetallic deposit that was discovered and explored during 2013 and 2017. (see the link)
But it was not as big at that time.. LOL.
This mine existed in 2021 and 2022 when the lithium price went over the roof. Can you imagine why they didn't mine it at that time?
All these news are coming out at the same time.
All just recently..!
SMM news on May 24, 2025;
"The production capacity of lithium concentrate in the autonomous region will be increased to 50,000 tons by 2025"
Why that claim is false? See below. Because;
- it is not a classic hard rock mine in pegmatite form (not a spodumene pegmatite, not even a lepidolite pegmatite) (There is a little amount of lepidolite type ore there they say but not much)
- it is not a LCT (Lithium-Ceisum-Tanatalum) type pegmatite
- it is a polymetallic vein (inside the faults) deposit (containing multiple metals, is a type of mineral deposit characterized by the presence of multiple metals occurring in veins within host rocks).
- Weilasituo deposit contains lithium, tin, copper and zinc in different veins which the thickness of 1m to 4m which is typical for vein deposits.
- The Chinse has to mine all these THIN VEINS TO EXTRACT LITHIUM and other metals. it's a high cost lithium mine. (Firstly open pit then underground mining as the veins in resource go down to 950m).
- the lithium is not being a by product of mining other metals at the same ore. The other metals like tin, copper and zinc are deposited in different type of veins. It has to be mined only for itself and some Rb. Therefore it's mining and processing cost is not cheap.
(Technical explanation; Lithium was derived from crust and ore fluids were initially magmatic water and later mixed with meteoric water. The initial single-phase ID Li-Rb-W-Sn-rich fluid was exsolved from the magma, and formed
the Li(-Rb) mineralization in the
crypto-explosive breccia pipe as the temperature dropped. Subsequently, the
fluid entered the faults and the pressure dropped, causing fluid boiling, and triggered the proximal Sn(-W-Mo) vein-type mineralization.)
You can see its geological map here.
This is the type of deposit. It's totally different than a LCT pegmatite system.
see what it says here;
"
Weilasituo lithium-tin mine unlikely to go into operation in 2020 - Asian Metal"
Weilasituo Mining Co., Ltd. was founded in November 2006 ... The company started construction in 2007 and went into commercial production in 2008. Mainly produced copper, zinc, silver and tungsten. Its resource began to decline from 2014, It halted production of existing zinc-copper polymetallic mine in 2020 due to depleted resources.
The company carried out exploration and
discovered a large-scaled lithium-tin polymetallic deposit containing massive lithium and tin ores. The lithium-tin polymetallic deposit that was discovered and explored during 2013 and 2017. "The discovery of the deposit was one of "2018 top ten geological prospecting achievements" of Geological Society of China".
The company says on this link that they have
27.8mt of lithium ore at 1.3% Li20 (lithium oxide) grade - 357kt of L2O (lithium oxide).
Another data
() says there is
688kt Li2O at 1.25 % L2O grade
MINDAT "Weilasituo Ag-polymetallic deposit"
Another data from SMM, just recently on April 22, 2025 says different story;
280mt ore at 0.65% L20 grade - 1,900kt L2O
"
Chifeng Mineral Breakthrough: Major Lithium and Tin Deposits Discovered"
For comparison; LTR has 2.340kt of tons of L2O in KV project. (or 5,787kt of LCE)
LTR has still has a bigger deposit than that mine in any case.
It's very hard to believe anything from the Chinese sources unfortunately.
(20min delay)