Arcadium Lithium plc (NYSE: ALTM) (ASX: LTM) picked up a package consisting of intellectual property and assets once held by Canada’s Li-Metals (CSE: LIM).
Announced on Saturday, Arcadium paid USD$11 million to Li Metals for the assets with the ultimate aim of refining lithium metal from carbonate. The company is now piloting its production process at the facility in Markham, Ontario.
Arcadium will use the facility to help commercialize its lithium metal production technology. To support this effort, the two companies have entered into a supply agreement, under which Arcadium will provide lithium metal to Li-Metal through a long-term offtake agreement.
Additionally, personnel from Li-Metal’s lithium metal business will join Arcadium as part of the acquisition. Li-Metal’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Maciej Jastrzebski, has also signed a consulting agreement with Arcadium to facilitate the technology transfer and team integration.
The company expects that the acquisition will strengthen its position as a leading global producer of lithium metal by enabling the company to implement safer, lower-cost, and more sustainable processes for lithium metal production. Arcadium will use various grades of lithium carbonate feedstock, which it produces in Argentina, to achieve these improvements.
“We are excited to welcome the team to Arcadium Lithium as we look to lead the way in developing cutting-edge lithium carbonate to lithium metal production technology,” said Paul Graves, CEO of Arcadium Lithium.
“This small but important acquisition gives us a platform to advance new and better process pathways for manufacturing lithium metal.”
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Ability to produce lithium metal adds flexibility
The Philadelphia-based lithium developer said that these new capabilities will complement its existing process technologies for producing lithium metal at its Bessemer City site in North Carolina. The company will use concentrated lithium chloride from its Güemes facility in Argentina’s Salta province to support this production.
“The ability to produce lithium metal from lithium carbonate will give us additional flexibility to utilize our vertically integrated network of assets while reducing the need for third-party lithium metal,” Graves continued.
“This will further enhance the competitiveness of our butyllithium and lithium specialty chemicals business and help us create the scale needed to meet the growing demand for next-generation battery materials developed from lithium metal.”
Arcadium is the largest established lithium metal producer in North America. It produces key products such as high-purity lithium metal (HPM) and LIOVIX, a proprietary printable lithium metal formulation for primary battery applications and next-generation batteries. The company was formed through a $10.6 billion merger between Livent and Allkem, two leading players in the lithium industry.
Furthermore, Arcadium holds significant lithium production assets in Argentina, including its Güemes facility in Salta province, which supplies concentrated lithium chloride for its North American operations.
The company faces stiff competition in the lithium markets, such as Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) (NYSE: SQM) and Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), both of which have established a substantial presence in the region. Additionally, Lithium South Development Corporation (TSXV: LIS) (OTCQB: LISMF) (Frankfurt: OGPQ), through its recent partnership with POSCO Holdings (NYSE: PKX), is emerging as a key competitor, further intensifying the competition to dominate the lithium market in Argentina.
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