Chinese mining company Zijin Mining Group will reportedly invest $380 million to build a lithium carbonate plant in Argentina. The investment will be made through its local subsidiary Liex. The plant will be located at the Tres Quebradas project in the northern province of Catamarca with an annual capacity of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate. Production at the plant is expected to double in the medium term, according to the government.

The investment was disclosed after executives from Zijin, Liex and Neo Lithium met with Argentine officials. In October 2021, Zijin Mining agreed to acquire Neo Lithium, a Canadian developer of lithium salt solutions, in an all-cash deal valued at C$960 million ($770.45 million).

Neo Lithium is the owner of the Tres Quebradas lithium project (3Q project) located in Argentina. The project covers an area of 35,000 hectares and is located in the province of Catamarca. For the Tres Quebradas project, construction of the plant is scheduled to start in 2021 and start production by the end of 2023. It added that Zijin Mining is also seeking "other significant investments" in advanced gold and copper projects in Argentina. In October 2020, the company started production at the US$610 million Buriticá gold mine in Colombia. Keywords: engineering construction, Engineering News

The Buritica Gold Project is a large, ultra-high-grade gold mine located in the mountains of the Central Cauca Belt in northwestern Colombia. Zijin Mining also approved an investment in November 2021 to support the construction of a 500ktpa smelter at the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).EditorXingWentao