Indian battery metals producer, Altmin, has initiated talks with the Australian government to secure lithium supplies as part of its efforts to meet rising demand for the critical mineral.
“We are talking to the Australian High Commission and the critical minerals office,” the company’s managing director, Anjani Sri Mourya Sunkavalli, told Reuters.
Altmin, India’s only cathode active materials producer, currently sources lithium carbonate from South American countries, Brazil, and Bolivia.
Last year, the company signed a deal with Bolivia’s state-owned Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) to establish a plant to produce lithium iron phosphate materials, and Altmin has future plans to bring in lithium carbonate from YLB’s Bolivian plant for its operations in India.
In addition, the company is exploring the possibility of setting up lithium refineries in Brazil and Australia, Sunkavalli said.
With a lack of lithium processing facilities in India, New Delhi is offering incentives to encourage private companies to set up lithium processing facilities locally, Reuters reported last month.
Sunkavalli also noted the possibility of exploring whether Altmin could secure supplies of spodumene, a mineral with a high concentration of lithium, from Brazil.
The company plans to set up a cathode active materials plant by 2025 in India’s southern city of Hyderabad, and it would source lithium carbonate from both Brazil and Bolivia for the planned unit, Sunkavalli said.
Altmin is currently in the process of raising US$36M-US$48M from sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors in the next two to three months to fund its expansion plans, Sunkavalli said.
