(Yicai Global) May 10 -- Gotion High-Tech’s stock price rose after the Chinese battery maker linked arms with an Argentinian miner to build a battery-grade lithium carbonate refinery in the South American country.

Gotion’s shares [SHE: 002074] closed 5.6 percent higher at CNY28.48 (USD4.25) each, the day’s high. The Shenzhen market rose 1.4 percent.

Hefei-based Gotion will build the refinery in Jujuy province and partner Jujuy Energía y Minería Sociedad del Estado will provide exploration and mining rights for lithium minerals over an area of about 17,000 hectares and ensure raw materials, power, transport, and land, it said in a statement today. The mining company is controlled by the provincial government.

The pair will cooperate in downstream areas such as cathode materials and battery manufacturing to jointly develop in the European and American markets, Gotion said, adding that they will figure out how to work together through separate talks. Their respective stakes in the refinery project were not disclosed.

The deal is important to Gotion to develop mineral resources, invest in the upstream industrial chain, open up the global industry, and increase its market share in the global power battery market, the firm said. The deal can also improve the supply of raw materials, enhance Gotion’s production equipment capacity, and stabilize raw material costs, it added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione