Following the recent web presentation comment of similar mica mining operations in China, I decided to follow through with some research. Created this thread to share info on this topic.
In the case of long-term dependence on imports of lithium carbonate, the breakthrough progress of mica lithium technology will break this situation.
"By mixing and acid roasting extraction process, the company's lithium recovery rate reached 82%, mica lithium lithium carbonate product purity is not less than 99.5%, has reached the national standard requirements." Jiu Ling new energy CEO Wei Dongdong introduced.
Located in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, Jiuling New Energy, relying on the abundant lithium mica mineral resources in the region, began to extract lithium mica concentrate in 2011. In 2017, it entered the lithium carbonate industry and built a new production line of 20,000 tons of lithium mica lithium carbonate, the lithium mica brine production line that achieves 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalents is put into operation only in 4 months.
In September 2018, the company has achieved a capacity of 600 tons of lithium carbonate per month. It is estimated that the actual production in 2019 will be more than 15,000 tons.
High-tech lithium battery has learned that in addition to Jiuling New Energy, companies such as Jiangte Electric, Nanshi Group, and Jiangxi YunLi have passed the mica lithium extraction process, and the purity of lithium carbonate products has reached 99.5%.
According to public information, in 2018, the capacity of mica lithium carbonate was about 15,000 tons, including 5,000 tons of Jiangte Electric. Jiuling New Energy started to produce 600 tons per month in September and 2,500 tons in the vertical lithium industry (subject to shortage of funds, such as settlement). After the actual production capacity of 5,000 tons), Dongpeng new materials 5,000 tons (some enterprises have not publicly disclosed).
In the future, along with Jiangte Motor, Nanshi Group, Jinyinhe, Hezheng Lithium Industry, Jiuling New Energy, Yongxing New Energy, Helong Lithium Industry, Kefeng New Materials, Dongpeng New Materials, Dow Technology, etc. The capacity under construction and planning is gradually released, and the future production capacity of mica lithium salt will exceed 200,000 tons.
As we all know, the global lithium resources mainly include lithium ore brine, spodumene and lithium mica. In 2017, the world's lithium salt production is equivalent to 253,400 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, lithium salt in salt lake accounts for about 60%, and lithium in ore accounts for about 40%; in the extraction of lithium from ore, spodumene accounts for 38%, and mica takes lithium. The proportion is less than 2%.
Behind the insignificant proportion is the long-term "insufficient development" of mica and the "immortality of acquired technology."
Lithium mica is mainly distributed in Jiangxi and Hunan in China, and Yichun, Jiangxi Province, stores one of the world's largest lithium mica lithium mine resources. At present, Yichun has proven that it can use 2.5 million tons of lithium oxide reserves, and according to the conversion coefficient of 0.188 lithium oxide-lithium carbonate theoretically, it can produce about 13 million tons of lithium carbonate.
The reserves are not low, but due to many factors such as low lithium content, high purification cost, environmental pressure, and immature technology, mica has not been able to achieve mass production.
High-tech lithium battery has learned that at present, mica lithium-removing enterprises mainly adopt two processes of mixed acid method (hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid or mixed acid) and sulfate method (mixed with sulfuric acid and potassium sulfate). Jiuling New Energy is able to achieve a purity of 99.5% of lithium carbonate products, which is a mixed acid process.
Compared with the traditional lithium extraction process (salt boiling method, alkaline pressing method and sulfuric acid method), the existing lithium extraction method has a significant improvement on the comprehensive utilization rate of lithium mica, and solves the problem of environmental pollution caused by the production of lithium carbonate waste residue and greatly improved the comprehensive economic value of lithium mica.
In addition to the process, another factor affecting the extraction of lithium from mica is the quality of the mica itself, which is the biggest obstacle to the delay in the development of this technology route.
Recently, Jiangte Motor said that the quality of lithium extracted from lithium mica and lithium sapphire is not much different. The main difference is that the raw materials are different, and the lithium content is different, which makes the extraction of lithium mica relatively difficult some.
“The grade of lithium extracted from lithium mica is about 50% different from that of lithium concentrate. For example, the grade of lithium mica is about 4.0, and the spodumene concentrate can be 6.0. This consumes raw materials in the process of downstream processing of lithium carbonate. There are differences, but the cost of lithium concentrate is relatively higher than that of lithium mica, because the price of raw materials is higher than that of lithium mica,” said the relevant person in charge of Jiangte Motor.
It is understood that according to different grades, the production of one ton of lithium carbonate requires about 14-20 tons of lithium mica concentrate. According to the price of 1500-2000 yuan/ton lithium mica concentrate, the raw material cost is about 25000-40000 yuan; For example, a lithium concentrate of 6.0 requires about 7.5-8 tons of lithium concentrate to produce one ton of battery-grade lithium carbonate. According to the price of 950 US dollars (equivalent to about 6545 yuan) per ton of lithium concentrate, the raw material cost is 49000-53000 Yuan or so.
Although lithium mica occupies a significant advantage in cost, its tailings produced in the process of producing lithium carbonate are more difficult to handle, which is also a problem that limits its mass production.
According to the person in charge of Yunluo Co., the lithium mica mine contains more materials and impurities than the spodumene ore. No matter whether it is feldspar or concentrate, if it is not properly and low-cost, the mica will be lithium. The normal operation of the production line and further expansion will be restricted.
"At present, there are still many problems in mass production of lithium mica. For example, in environmental protection, because it contains more impurities, the slag contains fluorine. At the same time, because of taste factors, more lithium mica needs to be consumed in the process of producing lithium carbonate. Concentrate, tailings treatment after mass production will become a big problem," said a lithium carbonate supplier executive.
Under the premise of technological breakthroughs, some enterprises have begun mass production, such as Jiangte Electric, Nanshi Group, Jiuling New Energy, etc., and have been certified by downstream cathode materials enterprises. However, due to problems such as lithium recovery rate and tailings treatment, the release of lithium capacity from mica will be limited. It is expected that the actual annual production capacity will not exceed 100,000 tons. In the future, it will play the role of “resource supplement” in the supply of lithium carbonate. .
The following is the progress of lithium lithium mica project in some enterprises:
Jiangte Motor
Jiangchun Motor's subordinate Yichun Silver Lithium has built a lithium iron mica production line with an annual output of 5,000 tons of lithium carbonate. The production line is now fully loaded; the new 10,000-ton production line is currently in trial operation, and the production capacity is in the climbing stage; joint venture with Baowei The construction of an annual output of 10,000 tons of mica lithium lithium carbonate production line has started construction.
At present, there are 30-40 downstream customer certifications, mainly mainstream lithium manganate enterprises (Shandong Keyuan, Wuxi Jinshi), and 3C are mainly Hunan Shanshan and CITIC Guoan. In the future, we will consider the development of power applications, and there are already enterprises in trial use (CITIC Guoan, etc.).
Yongxing New Energy
Yongxing New Energy Department is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yongxing Special Steel. In December 2017, it built an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons of lithium-ion materials (battery grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide) in Yifeng County, with an annual production capacity of 2.4 million tons of mining and mineral processing projects. . The investment in the first phase of the project is about 1 billion yuan. It plans to build an annual output of 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate and build a mining and mineral processing project with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons.
It is understood that the current annual output of 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate project is in the process of orderly advancement, equipment purchase is underway, and set up its own lithium battery research and development production team, through the efforts of the research and development production team, laboratory battery grade carbonic acid Lithium has been successfully tested and has excellent quality. Its lithium carbonate products are docking with Hunan Shanshan, Jiangmen Umicore, Tianjin Bano and other large manufacturers, in the sample delivery stage.
Jinyinhe
In March 2018, Jinyinhe plans to invest a total of 150 million yuan, and the wholly-owned subsidiary Andrei will build lithium mica to prepare battery-grade lithium carbonate and high value-added comprehensive products. After the completion of the project, it will form an annual capacity of 5,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate. According to the 80% of the maximum capacity, it will provide 4,000 tons of lithium carbonate, 104,000 tons of alum, 33,800 tons of silica sand and 17,600 tons of potassium sulfate by-products.
Jiuling New Energy
In September 2017, Jiu Ling New Energy CEO Wei Dongdong led the team to build a new lithium silicate mica lithium production line with an annual output of 20,000 tons. In just 4 months, the first 10,000-ton lithium carbonate equivalent lithium mica brine production line was put into operation. In September 2018, it has achieved a capacity of 600 tons of lithium carbonate per month. In 2019, the actual production is expected to be above 15,000 tons.
Nanshi Group
Nanshi Group set up Jiangxi Jinhui Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. on July 17, 2017, and engaged in lithium mica extraction of lithium carbonate, antimony and antimony products, and built an annual output of 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate project. At present, Jinhui Lithium has built an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate production line, and the second-stage production line is also accelerating construction, achieving an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate.
Its Nanshi lithium battery was rebuilt on February 7, 2018 to expand its annual production capacity of 40,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate, which was completed in two series. Among them, a series of lithium mica and concentrated sulfuric acid as the main raw materials through the mixing, heating, impurity removal, evaporation and concentration, lithium deposition process to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate, with an annual output of battery-grade lithium carbonate 20,000 tons; two series of lithium mica Sulfate is the main raw material, and it produces battery-grade lithium carbonate by roasting, leaching, purifying, removing, concentrating, and sinking lithium. It produces 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year.
Dongpeng new material
Dongpeng New Materials was established in 2000 and has developed into a major supplier of lithium battery materials in China and the largest producer and supplier of barium salts and barium salts in China. Its existing high-purity lithium carbonate has an annual output of 5,000 tons. In the future, it plans to produce 15,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide and 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate production lines, including mining, smelting and deep processing. The initial investment is about 400 million yuan, and internal design adjustment and production line layout are currently being carried out for environmental protection requirements.
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