Qinghai citic guoan Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd.' s Development and Utilization Plan of Lithium Mine Resources in Xitai Jinaier Lake shows that the lithium mine resources in Xitai Jinaier Lake have been proved to be 2,349,300 tons of lithium chloride liquid ore, and the planned construction scale of lithium carbonate is 25,000 tons/year.
The Development and Utilization Plan of Rare Metal Ore Resources in Daqianggou, Jiulong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province shows that the industrial lithium ore has reached 2.655 million tons, the Li2O resource is 33,272 tons, and the average grade is 1.253%.
Insiders pointed out that the two major lithium mine resource development plans were approved on the same day, echoing the call for accelerated development of domestic lithium resources.
In recent years, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles and lithium batteries, lithium has been widely concerned and listed as a strategic emerging industrial mineral in China. It is understood that the demand for lithium batteries accounts for about 70% of the total demand. As the world's largest producer and exporter of lithium batteries, China has a complete industrial chain advantage and cost and technology advantages, and its lithium salt production capacity accounts for about 70% of the global total production capacity.
However, from the perspective of upstream resource supply, the global distribution of lithium resources is extremely uneven.
According to the US Geological Survey, lithium resources in the world are mainly distributed in Chile, Australia, China and other countries. In terms of reserves, Chile's proven and economically exploitable lithium reserves are about 9.2 million tons, accounting for 44% of the world's total resources, but the development progress is relatively backward. In terms of output, Australia is the core country leading the global output change, and the lithium mineral quantity ranks first in the world for many years, accounting for about 50% of the global total output.
On the other hand, limited by technology and cost, China's lithium mines are still highly dependent on imports. According to customs statistics, in the first quarter of 2022, China imported 529,000 tons of lithium concentrate, of which about 502,000 tons were imported from Australia, accounting for 95%. According to institutional analysis, the spot supply of lithium concentrate is tight at present, and there is a certain gap between supply and demand of lithium ore in 2022 and 2023. In 2024-2025, it is difficult to alleviate this situation greatly, and the persistence of this round of mismatch between supply and demand will exceed expectations.
It is urgent to speed up the development of domestic lithium resources. At the beginning of this year, Guo Shougang, deputy director of the Equipment Industry Division I of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said that in the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will make overall plans to enhance the support capacity of key resources, strengthen communication and coordination with Qinghai, Sichuan, Jiangxi and other provinces and cities, and promote the development of domestic lithium resources.
Judging from the distribution of lithium resources in China, more than 80% of lithium resources in China are produced in salt lakes and distributed in Qinghai, Tibet and other provinces. Mineral lithium resources are concentrated in Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Xinjiang and other provinces, among which the proven mineral lithium reserves in Sichuan, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces are 3126,000 tons, accounting for 86.3% of the total mineral lithium resources. Among them, Lijiagou spodumene mine in Sichuan is known as the largest spodumene mine in Asia that has been proved and obtained mining license. It is expected that Qinghai,