(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- A lithium salts factory run by Chinese miner Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Group, that will be part of the world’s biggest integrated project for the mining, separation and smelting of lithium salts, kicked off construction in the country’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region yesterday.

The facility in Luofu county, Hotan prefecture will have an output of 100,000 tons of lithium compounds a year, Xinjiang Nonferrous said. It will be an important part of a mining and extraction project handling three million tons of precious metals a year in Dahongliutan village in the same prefecture.

Together the two projects, once completed, are expected to output 600,000 of high-quality lithium concentrate each year to become the world’s biggest integrated project for lithium resources’ mining, separation and smelting.

Covering an area of 126.7 hectares, the facility will produce 75,000 tons of basic lithium compounds in the first phase of construction, including 30,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 30,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide as well as 15,000 tonnes of lithium chloride, the firm said.

In 2019, Xinjiang Nonferrous won the prospecting rights for rare metals in Hotan with a bid of CNY2 billion (USD287 million). The area has proven spodumene resources of 50 million tonnes and 700,000 tons of lithium oxide. But after exploration is finished, this is expected to increase to around 100 million tons of spodumene ore and 1.5 million tons of lithium oxide.

China produced 395,000 tons of lithium carbonate last year, but the country has a production capacity of 600,000 tons, according to the lithium branch of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association. The country produced 246,400 tons of lithium hydroxide that year, 68 percent of its production capacity, as well as 22,200 tons of lithium chloride, 63 percent of its production capacity.

Editor: Kim Taylor