Lithium Plus to Repay Entire Loaned Lithium Carbonate from Public Procurement Service with Self-Production

On the 18th, Lithium Plus announced that it has fully repaid the 290 tons of lithium carbonate borrowed from the Public Procurement Service last year with battery-grade lithium carbonate produced independently. Lithium Plus is a company that manufactures ultra-high purity lithium hydroxide and battery-grade lithium carbonate used in secondary batteries and all-solid-state batteries, using lithium carbonate as a raw material at its plant in Geumsan, Chungnam.

Earlier, in the second half of last year, Lithium Plus completed its Geumsan Plant No. 1 and immediately succeeded in producing the first batch of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in December. By the end of December, it borrowed lithium carbonate from the Korea Mining Industry Promotion Corporation and the Public Procurement Service and has been producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate using it as raw material. The borrowing contract, managed by the Busan Regional Public Procurement Service, involved lending 290 tons of Chilean lithium carbonate stored as stockpiles to the company for up to nine months. The company was to repay the borrowed amount after the borrowing period with battery-grade lithium carbonate (purity 99.5%) produced in the United States or countries that have an FTA with the United States.

Lithium Plus stated that it has fully complied with the borrowing period and repayment conditions under the contract and successfully repaid all 290 tons of the borrowed material with battery-grade lithium carbonate produced at Geumsan Plant No. 1 to the Busan Regional Public Procurement Service by the 14th. At the time of repayment, along with the 290 tons of lithium carbonate, accompanying documents such as a certificate of origin proving that the lithium carbonate originated from the Republic of Korea and an external accredited institution’s test report confirming that the purity of the repaid lithium carbonate met the contract condition (99.5% or higher) were submitted. As a result, the Korea Mining Industry Promotion Corporation and the Public Procurement Service were able to break away from relying solely on imported lithium carbonate and, for the first time, stockpile domestically produced battery-grade lithium carbonate.

A company official said, “We are grateful to the government, the Korea Mining Industry Promotion Corporation, and all related personnel at the Public Procurement Service for their cooperation in successfully completing the borrowing and repayment of stockpiled materials.” He added, “Going forward, we will continue to manufacture and sell high-quality specialty lithium compounds tailored to customer requirements through stable raw material procurement, and actively cooperate with the Korea Mining Industry Promotion Corporation and the Public Procurement Service to increase the stockpile of domestically produced core strategic minerals.”