The Eramine mining company will be the first to start producing the so-called “white gold” in the province of Salta. It will do so in the Centenario Ratones project, located in the Los Andes department, at about 4,000 meters above sea level.
In this first stage, a production capacity of 24,000 tons of battery-grade liters is planned, which will provide inputs for around 600,000 electric car batteries. Eramine Sudamericana has been in Argentina for 12 years in the construction of the lithium project. The firm is the subsidiary of. the French company Eramet and a strategic partner of the Chinese company Tsingshan. The interest in investing in lithium is understandable given that China has the largest number of electric car battery factories. In fact, the latest fluctuations in international lithium prices were linked to a drop in Asian demand for electrically powered vehicles. The company employs about 1,600 people in construction.