Polar Lithium (a joint venture between Rosatom and Norilsk Nickel) plans to produce the first pilot batch of lithium in 2026.
This was announced by the First Deputy General Director of Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ, the mining division of Rosatom) A. Shemetov during a dialogue with stakeholders On the main results of the mining division in 2023.
Theses of A. Shemetov:
– initially, the start of lithium production was planned for 2029, but now we want to launch the first stage in the volume of 5 thousand tons already in 2026;
– the total volume of approved ARMZ investments in the lithium project is about 49 billion rubles;
– the immediate task for 2024 is the development of a technology for extracting lithium from spodumene ore.
Let us recall that on February 9, 2023, it became known that Polar Lithium received the right to use the largest lithium deposit in Russia – Kolmozerskoye.
The auction for the right to use the deposit was held by Rosnedra.
The initial one-time payment was 1.56 billion rubles, the term of use of the site is 20 years.
Polar Lithium received a license to develop the Kolmozerskoye deposit in the Murmansk region in 2023.
The deposit contains 18.9% of Russian lithium reserves, and this is the most promising lithium ore deposit in the country.
The estimated resources of the deposit in the P1 category are 13.5 million tons of ore and 152.6 thousand tons of lithium oxide.
On January 18, 2024, it became known that Rosatom and Norilsk Nickel increased the capitalization of their parity joint venture Polar Lithium to 2.63 billion rubles.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities:
Polar Lithium LLC was registered on July 11, 2022 in Moscow. The authorized capital of Polar Lithium LLC is RUB 2,625,653,075.74, the corresponding change was made to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on December 27, 2023 (before that, the company’s authorized capital was RUB 1 million), the founders’ shares have not changed.
50% of the company is owned by ARMZ, 50% is owned by Norilsk Nickel Technical Services LLC (a Norilsk Nickel structure).
The company’s additional capitalization may be associated with the entry of the Kolmozerskoye lithium deposit development project into the active implementation phase.
Kolmozerskoye deposit
The lithium ore reserves at the deposit amount to 75 million tons or 18.9% of Russian reserves of this metal. The estimated resources of lithium oxide in the P1 category are 152.6 thousand tons, tantalum pentoxide – 1.215 thousand tons, niobium pentoxide – 1.485 thousand tons. Polar Lithium’s license is valid until February 20, 2043, the one-time payment amounted to 1.718 billion rubles. The Kolmozerskoye deposit development project involves the production of lithium carbonate and hydroxide in the amount of 45 thousand tons per year. To achieve this production volume, it is planned to ensure an ore extraction volume of 2 million tons per year, i.e. the deposit reserves assume up to 40 years of production. In the 2nd quarter of 2025, Polar Lithium plans to approve the reserves of the Kolmozerskoye deposit in the State Reserves Commission, while preliminary results of geological exploration work (GEW) suggest the possibility of increasing the volume of reserves approved in the 1960s. The construction of the mining and processing complex (MPC) at the Kolmozerskoye deposit is planned in 2 stages:
– The 1st stage will be designed for 400 thousand tons of ore per year, its commissioning is scheduled for 2026,
– with the commissioning of the 2nd stage, scheduled for 2030, production will increase to 2 million tons of ore per year.
Own production is part of Rosatom’s integrated lithium project. The production of lithium-containing raw materials will make it possible to replace imports of both lithium raw materials and battery components for the production of batteries in Russia.
RENERA, Rosatom’s industry integrator for energy storage devices (part of TVEL, Rosatom’s fuel division), has been building a lithium-ion battery plant in the Kaliningrad Region since October 2022 on the site of the unfinished and frozen in 2013 Baltic Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The capacity of the gigafactory at the 1st stage will be 4 GWh/year (this will provide lithium-ion batteries for up to 50 thousand electric vehicles). If demand for the products is confirmed, the 2nd and 3rd stages may be introduced until the total production capacity reaches 14 GWh.
01/22/2024