Hombre Muerto Salt Lake Project Resumes Work, Outbreak or Lead Lithium Supply Reduction

Livent announced its Hombre Muerto Salt Lake project for lithium has been exempted on April 6. Since the Argentine government issued an emergency decree stipulating the implementation of the national mandatory quarantine from March 20 to March 31, 2020, Livent began to cease operations and evacuated employees and contractors from the hill where Hombre Muerto is located and suspended all production operations in the provinces of Catamarca and Salta in Argentina.

On March 20, due to the exemption decree issued by the Argentine government, Livent believed that under the exemption decree, the company was eligible for an exemption to resume production, and worked closely with the provincial and federal authorities to actively obtain authorization to resume production. On April 6, Livent issued an announcement saying that the Hombre Muerto Salt Lake project has been exempted. It is understood that the annual output of the project is about 20,000 tons.

Livent said that due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, the company has given up its previously issued 2020 production guidelines. In the later announcement, it will update the impact of the epidemic on the company. Affected by the epidemic prevention and control measures, the production of Hombre Muerto was suspended in March, and the affected capacity of Livent was 17,500 tons LCE per year.

According to the SMM supply and demand balance table, the global supply of lithium raw materials will be 44LCE in 2020. The current global epidemic is spreading, Australia's main mine production remains normal, and its output accounts for about 38% of the global supply of lithium raw materials. Although Chile's development is not optimistic, the production of salt lakes has not been greatly affected. The amount is about 25%. The production of the two major salt lakes in Argentina accounts for about 8% of the global supply of the raw materials.

According to the latest news, Hombre Muerto Salt Lake project is currently exempted, and Orocobre is still under stagnation. In terms of the overall situation, the current downstream demand is severely impacted, and the upstream lithium salt supply is less affected as it is concentrated in China where the epidemic situation has been relatively stable. With the development of the epidemic situation and the industry's anticipation, the lithium raw material supplier may further actively reduce production and inventory accumulation throughout the year.

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