Guocheng Holdings and the government of Mianzhu signed a project investment agreement on December 22. Under the agreement, Guocheng will set up a lithium salts project with a total production capacity of 200,000 tons per year. Mianzhu is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Deyang, which is prefecture-level city in China’s Sichuan Province.
The project will be divided into three phases. Facilities that will be built at the project site include a storage facility for lithium concentrate, a production facility for manufacturing lithium sulfate, a production facility for manufacturing lithium carbonate, a compressed air station, and an electric substation. The project will have a basic capability for outputting 200,000 tons of products related to lithium salts every year.
Guocheng Holdings stated that it is collaborating with the cities of Deyang and Ngawa Tibetan and Quiang Autonomous Prefecture to create a regional and vertically integrated industry cluster related to Li-ion batteries. Products that will be made in the industry cluster include lithium salts, cathode materials, anode materials, separator films, battery cells, and battery packs. The hope is that the industry cluster will eventually generate hundreds of billions of yuan in revenues and tens of billions of yuan in taxes. In addition, the industry cluster could become a shining example within the region’s Ethnic Unity and Development Demonstration Zone.
On November 23, Guocheng Holdings entered into a joint investment agreement with Jayson New Energy Materials, Jingcheng New Energy Investment, and Dazhong Mining. Together, they will build a low-carbon industrial park that provides vertically integrated manufacturing of Li-ion batteries. The industrial park will be located in Chifeng (Ulanhad), a prefecture level city in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The total investment in the project is estimated around 20 billion yuan. Besides battery manufacturing, the project will also include other facilities related to mining and new energy technologies.
Also, on November 10, Guocheng Holdings signed an investment agreement for the first phase of a project in Putian, a prefecture-level city in China’s Fujian Province. The project will have a total production capacity of 100,000 tons per year for ternary cathode materials. The first phase comprises 50,000 tons per year and entails an investment of 5 billion yuan. Once up and running, the first phase is expected to generate nearly 20 billion yuan in annual revenue.
Guocheng Holdings is a vast conglomerate that encompasses a diverse range of businesses, including prospecting, mining, chemicals, trading, and hotels. Among its 50-plus subsidiaries is Guocheng Mining, which is listed in the Chinese stock market. Earlier, Guocheng Holdings informed its shareholders that it will build on its businesses related to the production of non-ferrous metals and expand into the key sections of the wider field of new energy technologies. This move is expected to strengthen the conglomerate’s growth momentum over the long run.
On September 23, Guocheng Mining said its wholly owned subsidiaries Guocheng Herong and Guocheng Jiahua will respectively put up 447 million yuan and 49.6973 million yuan to acquire Guocheng Deyuan. Furthermore, Guocheng Holdings will take over Guocheng Changqing in its entirety. Through Guocheng Changqing, Guocheng Holdings will have a 48% stake in Kangding Jinxin Mining Tourism. Thus, it will enter the industry chain for Li-ion batteries by first establishing a foothold in the key upstream section of lithium resources.
Kangding Jinxin Mining Tourism was established in June 2006. Its main operations are located in the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. It has prospecting rights for one site and mining rights for another. Its main businesses are mining and sales of sopdumene, tantalum-niobium ores, beryllium ores, and tin ores. Its mining site has an area of 2.83 square kilometers and an annual output of around 50,000 tons.
Additionally, on September 28, Guocheng Mining announced that it will form two joint ventures with Cnano Technology and Jayson New Energy Materials. One of the joint ventures will specialize in LFP cathode materials and precursors, while the other will specialize in LMFP cathode materials and precursors.
Regarding the internal reorganization and mergers, Guocheng Mining has finished the transfer of ownership for Guocheng Changqing. Hence, Guocheng Holdings now owns 100% of Guocheng Changqing.
This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by Wendy at TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.