South Korea’s steel and battery materials producer POSCO Holdings Inc signed a preliminary agreement with Australian mining company Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd to jointly invest in a lithium processing plant in Australia.
According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed this week, the two companies will look for a suitable site in Australia to build a processing plant with an output capacity of 30,000 tons of lithium per year for use in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
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The agreement strengthens the existing partnership between Posco and Hancock, which already includes joint projects in iron ore and natural gas production. Posco acquired a 12.5% stake in Hancock’s iron ore mine Roy Hill in 2010 and the two companies jointly acquired Senex Energy, an Australian natural gas supplier, in 2020.
Posco Holdings’ executive vice president Kim Jun-hyung said in a statement: “We will review the optimal business model for this lithium partnership to achieve meaningful results.”
Posco, through its POSCO FUTURE M subsidiary, is looking to strengthen its battery materials supply chain and help reduce the South Korean battery industry’s dependence on raw materials controlled by Chinese companies.
Posco’s majority-owned Posco Pilbara Lithium Solution Company joint venture with Australia’s Pilbara Minerals recently completed the construction of its second lithium hydroxide plant in Gwangyang, South Korea. Earlier this year, the company completed construction of lithium processing facilities in Argentina with an annual capacity of 68,000 tons of brine and spodumene lithium.
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