Posco Holdings has held the groundbreaking ceremony for the first lithium hydroxide factory in South Korea, at the Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla province. The company will invest over $450 million up to completion in 2025. It will be able to produce about 25,000 tonnes/year, enough for some 600,000 electric vehicles.

Yulchon is already home to the Posco Future M subsidiary’s cathode material facility. A lithium ore plant is also being built there and it will eventually host a secondary battery material facility.

Global lithium chemicals companies Allkem and Livent have reached a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock merger of equals valuing the combined company at $10.6 billion. The agreement is expected to close by the end of 2023. Allkem and Livent shareholders will hold about 56% and 44% respectively of the stock.

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 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.

Lanxess and Standard Lithium have signed an agreement under which the latter will conduct a front-end engineering design study to evaluate the economic viability and technical feasibility of an industrial-scale, battery grade, lithium carbonate plant at Lanxess’ site at El Dorado, Arkansas. This follows 20 months of testing at a pilot plant.

The final results are expected in Q4, the two companies stated. If the study is completed successful, Standard Lithium could build a plant at its own expense at one of the three sites in El Dorado.