Qinghai to up lithium output

Qinghai province in Northwest China plans to increase lithium output by nearly five times as demand for electric vehicles powered by lithium cells surges, a top local official said. The province has the largest reserves of lithium in China and accounts for nearly 90% of the output. It plans to increase lithium carbonate output to 30,000 tons over the next five years from 6,000 tons last year, said Liu Shanqing, director of Qinghai’s Land and Resources Department. Citic National Security Lithium Technology Corp. and Qinghai Lithium Co. will account for most of the 30,000-ton capacity, with Citic National alone expected to produce 25,000 tons, Liu said. “The original plan was to have a capacity of 60,000 tons by 2015. But since the extraction technologies are not that mature enough, we scaled it down to 30,000 tons,” said Liu. (July 23, 2010)