Qinghai 100 Billion Yuan Lithium Industry Base Has Initially Taken Shape



Qinghai 100 Billion Yuan Lithium Industry Base Has Initially Taken Shape

“Up till now, upstream R&D enterprises of Qinghai Salt Lake lithium industry have made a number of breakthroughs, mid- to downstream industries and upstream industry accomplished connection, the industry has initially taken shape.” On September 10, Zhou Weixing, Deputy Director-general of Qinghai Provincial Science and Technology Department, made the above statement at the science & technology discussion meeting between experts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qinghai Province.

Qinghai is a province with the richest lithium resource in China, in the Qaidam Salt Lake region of this province, currently the latest proven lithium ore reserve is 17.24 million tonnes, accounting for as much as 83% of China’s retained reserve. In the recent 5 years, lithium extraction technology for Qinghai Salt Lake has made significant breakthrough, a number of experts in the industry attempted to use bittern lithium-production technical processes such as adsorption method, calcination method, and carbonization method, which laid down foundation for large-scale development of Qinghai lithium industry.

According to Zhou Weixing, currently in the upstream R&D aspect, on the basis of 200 t/a lithium carbonate industrial experiment, Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd adopted Russian production technology to solve problems in adsorbing agent volume, strength and bittern refinement, and completed 10000 t/a lithium carbonate industrialization demonstration production line; after extracting boron from bittern, Qinghai Lithium adopts ion selection of magnesium and lithium separation technique to directly produce battery-grade lithium carbonate, whose purity can reach 99.5%, meanwhile it constructed 10000-tonne grade lithium carbonate production device. Furthermore, Salt Lake bittern extraction of 1000-tonne grade lithium chloride technology and demonstration projects are respectively constructed in West Taijinar and Da Qaidam in the heartland of Qaidam.

“In the aspect of linking up mid- to downstream industries and upstream industry, Xining Nanchuan Industrial Park is used as the reception place of new energy and new material industry in Qinghai Province, the development focus is placed on lithium battery’s anode material, cathode material, separator, electrolytic solution and power battery, power storage battery etc, which have developed complete industrial chain. ” Zhou Weixing said.

Zhou Weixing said, Qinghai has constructed production capacity of 2000 t/a lithium iron phosphate battery anode material, Phase II 8000 t/a anode material project is now under construction, which enables large-scale demonstration operation of China’s domestic lithium iron phosphate material and its power battery system in multiple electric vehicle demonstration projects. Furthermore, 250,000 kWh magnesium lithium energy storage battery production line project has been completed and launched into production, which overcomes the high temperature technology difficulty of magnesium-based lithium battery anode material, boasting leading position in China.

“At present, 460,000 kWh power and energy storage battery project has finished construction and started production, the 50 MW photovoltaic power station for supporting 18 MWh lithium iron phosphate energy storage battery project is under preparation for construction.” Zhou Weixing said.

Zhou Weixing indicated that in the “Thirteenth Five Year Plan” period lithium industry technology innovation would become the focus, it would further improve lithium carbonate production process, optimize existing lithium carbonate manufacturers’ technical process route, improve lithium resource recovery rate, and lower production cost; targeting at different ingredients of valuable element in salt lakes in Qinghai, unveil lithium carbonate primary product manufacture standard system catering to Qinghai province downstream production as soon as possible, strive to put through the complete industrial chain from lithium carbonate to new energy automobile by adopting uniform standard, and properly handle industrial chains of lithium chloride, metal lithium, and lithium hydroxide etc.