Rockwood builds in Chile

Lithium carbonate adds to US expansion
 

Rockwood Holdings is to invest $140 million in a new 20,000 tonnes/year lithium carbonate production plant at LeNegra, near the port of Antofagasta in northern Chile. This is due onstream by the end of 2013 and will increase the company’s global capacity to 50,000 tonnes/year.

Driven largely by booming demand for high purity lithium compounds for large format lithium ion batteries, Rockwood is also spending some $75 million to increase production in the US. This includes the expansion of the brine pond system at Silver Peak, Nevada, and the construction of a battery grade lithium hydroxide plant and a global technical centre at Kings Mountain, North Carolina.