Hi Jerko what do you make of the statement below, I know your on...

Hi Jerko what do you make of the statement below, I know your on here, wink,wink, only 90% completed still, pilot plant, no production until the end of the year ,hmm sounds promising

Four projects that will put Salta at the pinnacle of lithium have begun.
hashtag#bolivia,hashtag#chile,hashtag#argentina, by @oscarvargasvillazon, 17 April 2024.

This year 2024, three large industrial lithium plants and one with a smaller capacity will be commissioned.

1.-The Salar Centenario Ratones project will start producing from June. It is run by the French company Eramet and the Chinese group Tsingshan, has a budget of US$400 million in addition to the US$200 million already invested initially, the plant will have an estimated annual production capacity of 24,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE).

The Mariana project, run by the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium, is located in the Salar de Llullaillaco, 95 kilometers from Tolar Grande. The investment in the project is around US$600 million. It will produce 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year.

Also, in 2022, they began the construction of an industrial plant in General Güemes to complete the production of lithium chloride. The plan includes building its own railway station for the transport of the first lithium product from Llullaillaco to the plant.

The South Korean company Posco is in charge of the third major lithium project being developed in Salta: Sal de Oro. The deposit is located in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, in the shared sector between Salta and Catamarca and will advance to its operational phase between the end of this year and the beginning of 2025.

With an investment of around US$1.6 billion, the South Korean company is building a commercial lithium phosphate plant in the salt flat and another to process lithium hydroxide in the General Güemes industrial park, with a production capacity of 25,000 tons of this product per year.

The mining company Rio Tinto announced that by the end of this year a lithium carbonate plant that it is building in the Rincón salt flat will be up and running. It will have a capacity of 3,000 tons per year. The investment in the work is US$350 million, which is in addition to the US$825 million that the company invested to acquire the project in 2022.

Other early-stage projects:
The Puna Mining project in the Salar del Rincón of Argosy Minerals in Australia is building a pilot plant to manufacture lithium carbonate that is already 90% complete and by the end of the year will start producing with a capacity of 2,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year.

Lithium X Energy acquired the rights to the Sal de los Angeles deposit.

The Pozuelos PPG project, Pluspetrol announced a US$962 million sale agreement to the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium.

The National Mining Secretariat updated the portfolio of lithium projects in which Salta has a preponderance with 17 deposits out of the 38 surveyed in total.