Tianqi says expansion of world's biggest lithium mine to go ahead
A looming legal dispute won't affect plans by China’s Tianqi Lithium to expand its Greenbushes mine in Western Australia by 1.34 million tons per annum (mtpa) or double the capacity of a proposed processing plant at Kwinana to 24,000 tpa, the company’s Australian general manager said. Resource Capital Funds-owned Global Advanced Metals, which has rights to other minerals at Greenbushes, has said that the expansion will effectively waste its tantalum resource. The Greenbushes mine is the world’s biggest lithium mine, producing 31% of global supply, and is operated by Talison Lithium, a joint venture between Tianqi and Albemarle.
A looming legal dispute will not affect plans by China’s Tianqi Lithium to expand its Greenbushes mine or double the capacity of a proposed processing plant at Kwinana, according to the company’s Australian general manager.

In June, Tianqi announced a 1.34Mtpa expansion of its Greenbushes mine in the South West to provide feedstock for a doubling of capacity of its proposed lithium hydroxide plant from 24,000tpa to 48,000tpa to supply the burgeoning electric vehicle battery market.

But the Resource Capital Funds-owned Global Advanced Metals, which has rights to other minerals at Greenbushes, has taken issue with the company’s plans, arguing the expansion will effectively waste its tantalum resource.

The Greenbushes mine is the world’s biggest lithium mine, producing 31 per cent of global supply, and is operated by Talison Lithium, a joint venture between Tianqi (51 per cent) and US-based Albemarle Corporation (49 per cent).

GAM argues Talison did not discuss its expansion plans for Greenbushes with it as required by a reserved minerals rights agreements over the asset. It wants the company to halt the expansion and negotiate in good faith before proceeding.

Tianqi Lithium’s Australian boss Phil Thick told a Benchmark Mineral Intelligence conference in Perth yesterday he thought the dispute would be resolved.

“Our legal opinion is about as crystal-clear as I’ve seen — we’re going ahead with the expansion,” he said.

“It’s not my company so I’m speaking a bit out of school but I expect they’ll just come to a commercial settlement at some point that will allow them to go on.

“But it’s not stopping us in any way and I’m not concerned about it.”

GAM chief executive Andrew O’Donovan said the company’s tantalum rights at Greenbushes were valuable and critical to its position as the global leader in the integrated supply of a range of tantalum products for use in high-tech industries.

He said Talison had not complied with its contractual obligations to GAM.

Mr Thick said Kwinana would be Tianqi’s global headquarters outside of China. The company wanted to be considered in the same league as Rio Tinto, BHP, Woodside and Wesfarmers in terms of sponsorship and support of the WA community.