On October 24th, the French mining giant Eramet announced its buy-out of the 49.9% shares in its Argentine subsidiary Eramine Sudamerica from Tsingshan Group for $699 million (approximately €646 million), regaining full ownership of the lithium business in its Argentine subsidiary. Eramet's Argentine subsidiary is strategically repositioning to fully control the development of the world-class Centenario lithium project in Argentina.
Eramet holds mining concessions in the Centenario and Arizaro salars in Argentina, which are among the largest brine lithium deposits in the "Lithium Triangle."
Eramet successfully operated a pilot plant on site since the end of 2019 and, in October 2021, partnered with Tsingshan Group to construct the first lithium carbonate extraction plant at Centenario. The new plant, inaugurated in July 2024, has a nominal production capacity of 24,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) per year. The highly automated facility uses state-of-the-art Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology and is currently in the final stages of commissioning, with production expected to start in the coming weeks. The transaction between Eramet and Tsingshan Holdings will not affect project delivery and operational plans.
The total drainable mineral resources of the Centenario plant exceed 15 million tons of LCE, with an average lithium concentration of 407 mg/L in the brine, which means that in the long term, the annual production capacity will reach 75,000 tons of LCE.
This transaction is part of Eramet's counter-cyclical expansion strategy. Recently, several lithium companies, including Rio Tinto, have carried out counter-cyclical mergers and acquisitions. According to the latest forecasts from Eramet, lithium market demand is expected to double almost every five years over the next 20 years. Christel Bories, Chairman and CEO of Eramet Group, said, "Today's transaction marks a significant milestone in our development in lithium, a key metal for energy transition, poised to experience sustained high growth in demand in the coming years... This strategic move enables us to unlock the full potential of our world-class Centenario deposit and comes at the right time in the context of cyclically low market prices for lithium."
Tsingshan Group stated that over the past two years, both parties have co-developed（Salar Centenario Ratones）and put Phase-1 into operation. However, based on assessments of the project's future development and overall market evaluations, Tsingshan South America has made business adjustments and exited the project. However, this does not affect the global partnership that has been formed over the years, and both parties will continue to cooperate in many other areas.
Furthermore, Tsingshan expressed that it remains highly interested in the overall lithium business and wishes to continue building a vertically integrated lithium industry chain globally, including downstream lithium battery manufacturers such as REPT BATTERO and Qingtuo Electric Heavy Trucks, as well as numerous upstream and midstream investments.
Eramet will continue its nickel mining cooperation with Tsingshan Holdings in Indonesia. In July of this year, Eramet negotiated with Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to produce battery-grade nickel sulfate in Indonesia.
