Argentina has 'big opportunity' to add value to lithium

Carolina Sánchez, the new mining secretary in Argentina, said that the country has a big opportunity to add value to the lithium chemical industry, although she doubted if batteries would create a major market.

Sánchez, who gave a talk at Editec's Lithium Forum in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, assumed the post last July when the government moved the mining department from under the wings of the energy ministry to the production ministry.

"We care about upstream integration with processes related to the development of projects, and territorial services, and in downstream integration we believe we can add value to the chemical industry with exploration of new chemical products and technological development in several lines," Sánchez told the audience.

The official said the government is evaluating the development of batteries, with some provinces embarking on diverse strategies with battery manufacturers to see how far Argentina could go in the value-added chain.

"The batteries industry is mutant. We're going to learn how to do a type of battery, and then sell it to the market, but in that time lapse, many new battery models are going to be developed and this model will be obsolete," said Sánchez.

She told BNamericas that her department is interested in any type of value added products. "What we can begin to think is not in the full development of a battery, but in the treatment of cathodes, and in the lithium alloys with cathode materials for the use in batteries."

Martín Obaya, a researcher at Argentina's CONICET research center, said that there is no intrinsic reason to justify battery production in Argentina.

"We should move away from projects which are too far away from our capabilities and which require brutal production scales - that we don't have. We are not even close to the potential markets and sources of financing to spend on these projects," he said.

Obaya said that currently in Argentina there is a very broad research and technological network involved in the development of lithium hydroxide, isotopic separation and development of cathodes.

Sánchez agreed that a lot has been done at research and technology institutes. "We are researching new compositions of lithium cathodes to improve battery charging and processes of lithium recycling for batteries. But it hasn't been transferred to the industry yet."

PARTICIPATION OF SMEs

The mining official said that one of the aims of the department is to promote the participation of small and medium companies in the mining sector, within operations, as suppliers or as added-value producers.

"At the mining department, we care about the production chains, regional development, and the participation of small and medium companies. We want local SMEs to be up to the needs of mining projects, that generate more employment in thinly populated areas of our country," said Sánchez in her presentation.

The production ministry offers various financing mechanisms and drivers for SMEs, Sánchez told BNamericas. "All SMEs can benefit from this financing, technical assistance for the improvement of quality, and assistance with the rules and regulations to improve their ability to export."