POSCO to produce salt water lithium in North America from 2025

Highland salt water in Salta, Argentina [Source : POSCO]

South Korean steel giant POSCO plans to extract and produce lithium in North America from 2025 as part of its plans to meet the Inflation Reduction Act and sell the material to electric vehicle battery makers in the U.S.

“Apart from lithium being extracted from a highland salt water in Salta, we are preparing to directly produce 20,000 tons of lithium a year in North America from 2025,” Kim Kwang-bok, president of POSCO Argentina, told reporters last week in Salta, Argentina. “We will first secure 50,000 tons of lithium production system from the salt lake in Salta by 2025 and add 50,000 tons by 2030 to produce 100,000 tons in Argentina.”

Kim Kwang-bok, president of POSCO Argentina [Source : POSCO]

POSCO will be able to produce 120,000 tons of lithium in 2030 as it will be able to extract an additional 20,000 tons in North America from 2025, Kim added.

Lithium produced in Argentina will be sold to local and foreign battery manufacturers as key cathode material for electric vehicle batteries.

Battery manufacturers that buy lithium from POSCO need to produce batteries in the U.S. before supplying them to car makers to receive grants under IRA given that Argentina doesn’t have a free trade agreement with the U.S.

“We will be able to raise more than 100 trillion won ($78.3 billion) annually from salt water lithium that is more environmentally-friendly compared with ore lithium,” Kim said.