Exert from Wikipedia: GEA Group AG, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany is a global equipment and process technology provider for the food industry and a wide range of other industries. GEA operates with 17,000 employees worldwide as of 31 December 2016.
GEA has recently built a processing plant with Tianqi at the highly renowned Greenbushes lithium mine.
“In the area of lithium processing, GEA has extensive experience in the realization of such systems for which we offer a very large technology portfolio covering the entire production chain of lithium production. In addition to the components ordered here, this also includes the spray drying area of lithium, where GEA has a very large market share worldwide," said Niels Erik Olsen, Member of GEA's Management Board and responsible for Business Area Solutions.
In detail, GEA will supply and install evaporation,crystallization and drying technology for the plant in Kwinana, 38 km south of Perth, Western Australia. The installation is planned for 2017.
The Tianqi Lithium Corporation, which controls a majority stake in the Talison Greenbushes mine, the world's premier producer of lithium concentrate from spodumene, is building a downstream processing plant for lithium hydroxide. The plant will convert around 161,000 tonnes per year of spodumene concentrate into 24,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide, for use in the growing global market for lithium ion batteries.
