Australia’s first battery-grade lithium refinery, the largest outside China, has opened talks with electric vehicle makers as it seeks to meet surging demand from global automakers for the mineral.
Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, jointly owned by Chinese group Tianqi and Australian company IGO, said it was aiming to supply a number of global automakers with lithium hydroxide from its plant in Kwinana, near Perth, Western Australia. Lithium hydroxide is the refined product used in electric vehicle batteries.
“I think it’s a matter of time,” said Raj Surendran, chief operating officer of the joint venture that owns the plant, about supplying lithium hydroxide directly to electric vehicle companies rather than exporting the raw mineral to be refined in China.