SHANGHAI, Sep 13 (SMM) - Since 29 August, 2022, SMM lithium industry research team has conducted field investigation by visiting four large-scale lithium smelting enterprises in Jiangxi. With the rapid growth in lithium prices, many leading lithium battery companies have located their plants in Jiangxi, and Yichun, a city there known as the "Lithium Capital of Asia", has become the centre of attention. The first stop of SMM's research team in Jiangxi is Jiangxi Yongxing Special Steel New Energy Technology Co., Ltd (referred to as "Yongxing New Energy”), a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Yongxing Special Materials Technology Co., Ltd (referred to as the Yongxing Materials). 

Yongxing New Energy is mainly engaged in the comprehensive development, utilization and processing of lithium resources, as well as R&D, production and sales of new energy materials for lithium batteries. The company is committed to producing battery-grade lithium carbonate, which is applied in various lithium battery cathode materials and electrolyte, including NMC cathode material, lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) and lithium manganese oxide(LMO). The terminal sector for the company’s product application covers new energy vehicles, energy storage, 3C digital products and small power batteries. At present, Yongxing New Energy boasts of a production capacity of 30,000 mt/year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, and it is also one of the leading enterprises in China to produce lithium carbonate with lepidolite.  

In terms of mine layout, Yifeng County Huaqiao Mining Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Huaqiao Mining"), the holding subsidiary of Yongxing Materials, is the main supplier of raw materials for the lepidolite and lithium carbonate production in Yongxing Materials. Huaqiao Mining owns a porcelain stone ore mine in Huashan, Yifeng County, which covers an area of 1.87 square kilometres with a total of 45 million mt of proven and controlled resources. In addition, Yifeng County Huali Mining Development Co., Ltd., 48.97% of whose shares are controlled by Yongxing Materials, owns a kaolin ore mine in Baishuidong, Yifeng County. The area with prospecting right is 0.76 square kilometres, with proven and controlled reserves of 7.3 million mt.  

Porcelain stone ore in Huashan       

Up to now, Yongxing Materials already has beneficiation capacity of 3.6 million mt/year (1.2 million mt/year from the completed phase I project, 600,000 mt/year from Yongcheng Lithium, and 1.8 million mt/year from the phase II project of high-efficiency beneficiation and comprehensive utilization, whose construction is about to complete). The beneficiation process for lithium-containing ores in Yongxing New Energy includes crushing, grinding, gravity separation, flotation, magnetic separation and dehydration. Apart from its main product lepidolite concentrates, the company also produces some by-products with economic benefits, such as tantalum-niobium-tin, kalialbite, and ultra-thin stone. In this way, the company manages to minimise its production costs.  

Flow chart of beneficiation process

In terms of lithium salt production, Yongxing New Energy is now capable of producing 30,000 mt/year of battery-grade lithium carbonate. In particular, the first phase with capacity of 10,000 mt/year was put into operation in September 2019, and the second phase with capacity of 20,000 mt/year capacity has been undergoing trial production. In terms of process flow, the company mainly adopts pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy.

The pyrometallurgy comes first, during which process lithium lepidolite, sulphate and fluoride retention agent are mixed before roasted, ground, and leached.

While during the later process of hydrometallurgy, pure lithium sulphate solution is created through ion resin exchange after impurity removal and evaporative concentration. Next, soda solution is added to precipitate lithium in order to obtain solid lithium carbonate, which will experience filtering, drying and fluidized energy milling before finally put into machines for packing. In this way, finished product of battery-grade lithium carbonate is successfully created.  

Procedure of battery-grade lithium carbonate production

In terms of production technology, Yongxing New energy chooses to roast compound salt under low temperature, which is efficient in retaining fluoride and significantly reduces the possibilities of equipment corrosion. The company also adopts a technique of roasting materials in a tunnel kiln after it takes shape, which will accelerate the chemical reaction of lithium, and dramatically increases the leaching rate of lithium. During the roasting process, the combustion technique has been optimised to be coordinated with MVR energy-saving evaporation and concentration device. Therefore, the evaporative steam can be collected and recycled, greatly reducing the cost of auxiliary materials. In the process of lithium carbonate hydrometallurgy, the lithium precipitation technique is improved so greatly that the battery-grade lithium carbonate can be obtained in one step, which further cut the overall cost of battery-grade lithium carbonate production. Yongxing New energy is persistent in research and development as the company has made achievements in developing a technology of creating crystalline salt from the original solution through freezing and a technology of recycling condensated water, both of which enables the company to ramp up capacity while lowering energy consumption.  

Comprehensive office building of Yongxing New Energy

As a leading domestic lepidolite smelting enterprise, Yongxing New Energy has great advantages of self-owned resources and advanced technology. The company integrated mining, beneficiation, and smelting process of the industry chain to stay resilient amid rising prices of raw materials and auxiliary materials, therefore it becomes highly competitive in the rapidly developing lithium industry.

The following SMM coverage will introduce other three major lepidolite smelting enterprises in Jiangxi. Please stay tuned.

For queries, please contact Frank LIU at liuxiaolei@smm.cn

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