Albemarle has announced plans to locate its previously announced lithium hydroxide ‘Mega-Flex’ facility in Chester County, South Carolina. The initial investment will be at least $1.3 billion, due to surging demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and lithium-ion batteries worldwide.

Pending permitting approvals, the facility will be located within an area of about 320 hectares. It is projected to create more than 300 new, permanent jobs and sustain more than 1,500 construction jobs.

Albemarle has acquired a location in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it will invest at least $180 million to establish the Albemarle Technology Park (ATP), aided by a $13 million incentive package from the state of North Carolina. The company expects to move in by early 2025 and complete of the campus by late 2026.

Albemarle has announced planned investments of up to $540 million to expand and modernise two bromine facilities in Magnolia, Arkansas, where it currently has more than 400 employees and 200 contractors. These investments have already begun and will continue through 2027.

Albemarle has officially inaugurated La Negra III/IV, its third chemical conversion plant, 27 km from the city of Antofagasta in Chile. The firm claims that this is the most modern plant of its kind in Latin America and that it will help to double lithium production and reduce freshwater consumption by up to 30% per tonne of production.

Albemarle has signed a joint development agreement with 6K, a specialist in microwave-controlled plasma technology, to explore the use of 6K’s UniMelt materials production platform to develop novel lithium battery materials. It has also made an undisclosed investment in 6K through Volta Energy Technologies, a venture capital firm active in the energy storage sector that is already an investor.

Shortly after acquiring a lithium converter in Guangxi province, Albemarle has signed investment agreements that will enable it go build two lithium hydroxide plants in China. Each will have 50,000 tonnes/year of capacity and construction is to be completed by the end of 2024.

They are located at the Yangtze River International Chemical Industrial Park within the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone in Jiangsu province and the Pengshan Economic Development Park in the Pengshan district in Sichuan province.

The two largest players in lithium chemistry have both made significant investments in the past month, with Albemarle closing a deal that gives it a stake in a spodumene mine in Western Australia and Livent has begun construction of more lithium hydroxide production in the US.