CATL’s subsidiary secures exploration right at mine lot in Yichun

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On April 20, Yichun Contemporary Amperex Mining Co., Ltd., whose majority shareholder is CATL, obtained the right to prospect for ceramic clay (including lithium) at a mine lot in Yichun city, East China's Jiangxi province after winning an auction with a quoted price of 865 million yuan ($134.84 million), CATL announced via its WeChat account.

Photo credit: CATL

The mine lot is co-administered by Huaqiao township in Yifeng county and Shangfu town in Fengxin county, and covers a mineral exploration area of 6.44 square kilometers. It contains estimated 960.251 million tonnes of china stone as well as 2.657 billion tonnes of associated lithium cobalt oxide.

The move came after CATL signed a cooperation agreement with Yichun municipal government in September 2021 to jointly build a new-type battery manufacturing base.

On October 28 last year, CATL broke ground on the battery production base in the city. The first phase of the project involves an investment of 13.5 billion yuan ($2.104 billion) with a designed production capacity of  50GWh per year.

CATL said securing the access to the mineral resources in Yichun is an important step for CATL's layout of the full industrial chain. While observing the national requirements for mining safety, it will speed up prospecting and exploring mineral resources, lifting lithium supply, so as to help prices of relevant raw materials return to a reasonable level.