Product Pick of the Week - Galaxy Resources produces 99.9% grade lithium

Galaxy Resources is now producing a lithium carbonate of minimum 99.9% purity, registered by Galaxy as EV Grade, which is used specifically in the manufacture of electrolyte solution for lithium-ion batteries.

Commercial production has now been achieved from the company’s wholly-owned Jiangsu Lithium Carbonate Plant in China.

What is so important though for Galaxy is that the plant was originally designed to produce 17,000 tpa of battery grade (minimum 99.5% Li2CO3 purity) lithium carbonate product making it the largest battery grade producer in the world – but recent adjustments and improvements to the process have allowed the Jiangsu team to produce a higher specification product of 99.9% purity.

The benefit of the EV Grade is that it can be sold at a 20%-30% premium (over battery grade 99.5% purity) due to the higher purity specification and limited supply globally.

The ability to produce the higher grade gives Galaxy more options, although the battery grade lithium carbonate will continue to make up bulk of the company’s sales. Galaxy had over 7.7 million in cash at the end of December 2012.