Two of the main exporters of lithium in the country, the mining companies Litven and Liken, This Thursday they completed their merger into one mega company: Arcadium Lithium. The new company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, become one of the largest lithium producers in the world. It starts with $1.9 billion in capital and 2,600 employees globally.
Before the merger, both companies were already managing litigation projects in Argentina. Australian company Aliken operates the Olaroz and Sal de Vida lithium carbonate projects in Jujuy, while US company Litven controls the Fénix project in Catamarca.
Fruit of this fusionArcadium Lithium became one of the largest integrated manufacturers of lithium chemicals in the world. “The new combined company is a leading global manufacturer of lithium chemicals, committed to safely and responsibly harnessing the power of lithium to improve people’s lives and accelerate the transition to a clean energy future,” he explained the company in a statement.
Paul Graves, CEO of Arcadium Lithium, said: “As the world’s leading manufacturer of lithium chemicals, Arcadium Lithium has the resources, scale and expertise to meet the growing needs of our ever-evolving industry.”
The executive stressed that the new mining company did “Strategic locations around the world. “This will open doors to new opportunities and strengthen our ability to deliver value to our customers, investors, employees and communities.”
Graves continued: “It is a privilege for me to lead this great company with such an incredible team. This transformative merger would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of our integration planning teams over the past few months. “I want to thank them and all of our employees around the world for helping us get to this position.”
According to industry export data, the two companies were responsible for overseas lithium carbonate sales in Argentina of $696 million in 2022. Thanks to the production of the two companies, Argentina positions itself in the global lithium market with an installed production capacity of 37.5 thousand tonnes of carbonate and an average annual production of 33,000 tonnes, and is considered the fourth largest supplier in the world behind Australia, Chile and China.
The third ongoing joint project is Sal de Vida, also in Catamarca. The initiative commissioned by Allkem consists of the construction and operation of another lithium mine in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, with an initial investment of 100 million dollars from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and another 80 million dollars in funds mobilize.
Sal de Vida will have a lithium brine plant for batteries. In the first phase, an initial production of 1,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year is estimated, a quantity of lithium sufficient for the production of approximately 400 batteries for electric vehicles. As for exports, the company expects operations of around 450 million dollars.
SN
Source: Clarin
