POSCO Holdings to Establish 30,000t Lithium Plant with Australia's Hancock

Joint Lithium Venture for Secondary Battery Materials
Diversifying Raw Materials Following Argentina and Australia

POSCO Holdings is advancing a lithium production project for secondary batteries with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons in partnership with Australian mining company Hancock.

POSCO Holdings announced on the 10th that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for lithium business cooperation with Hancock on the 9th. The signing ceremony, held via video connection between Korea and Australia, was attended by senior executives from both companies, including Kim Jun-hyung, Vice President and Head of Secondary Battery Materials at POSCO Holdings, and Gary Cort?, CEO of Hancock.

The two companies will jointly review the optimal sites for lithium plant establishment among several countries including Korea, and will further specify details such as investment amounts at a later stage.

POSCO Holdings will secure an additional stable lithium raw material supply chain free from U.S. Foreign Entity Oversight Committee (FEOC) regulations by linking with Hancock’s diverse mining assets, and will further strengthen the group’s lithium value chain from lithium mines and brine lakes to lithium hydroxide, cathode materials, and recycling.

Hancock, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, is a mining specialist company that is diversifying its business from iron ore, its main revenue source, into lithium, natural gas, and rare earth elements. The POSCO Group has expanded its cooperation with Hancock across the group, including a 12.5% stake investment in Hancock’s Roy Hill iron ore mine in 2010 and a joint acquisition of Australian natural gas company Senex Energy with POSCO International in 2022.

POSCO Holdings is actively securing lithium resources such as mines and brine lakes, viewing the secondary battery market chasm (temporary demand slump) as an opportunity to expand its resource supply chain and business capabilities for lithium market leadership when the market recovers. This year, with the completion of lithium brine (annual 25,000 tons) and ore lithium (43,000 tons) plants in Argentina, it has secured a total annual lithium production capacity of 68,000 tons, enough to produce about 1.6 million electric vehicles.

Kim Jun-hyung said, "POSCO Holdings has built trust through a long-standing partnership with Hancock," adding, "We will review the optimal business structure in this lithium business cooperation and achieve good results."