Blog: You, us, everyone

Pilbara Minerals in one of Australia’s largest independent mining company, it is specialized in extracting Lithium. As such it is conduction the largest lithium operation in the country, which produces 53% of world’s lithium. Lithium is a key product for batteries and the major refining operations are in China.

Given its dependency on China, Australia has decided to break-free from this constellation thereby it will be building in collaboration with companies such as Pilbara and Calix, a tech company, its own refinery capacities. To start with, it is planed that the joint-venture establishes a production facility to cover 20% of the country’s export by 2027.

Considering that the production of lithium will be more regulated (in order to meet environmental requirements) in Australia than in China, the end-product will be more expensive. Can it compete with a higher output price in international markets? We believe so as environmental and sustainability become an ever-bigger element in the decision-making process.