Rio Tinto announced the investment of US$350M into the Rincon lithium project in Argentina, which will look to commission the small-scale starter plant with a target capacity of 3.0ktpy by the end of 2024.
The investment is also planned to finance initial works for a full-scale operation at the project, which could see a capacity of 50.0ktpy LCE battery grade lithium carbonate being achieved at the project towards the end of the decade.
After acquiring the Rincon project in 2022 for US$825M, Rio Tinto has focussed on better understanding the brine deposit and developing a direct lithium extraction process in pilot scale test work running since 2022.
The commissioning of the project would see Rio Tinto join Lithium Americas and Arcadium Lithium as commercial scale lithium brine producers in Argentina, a list which is expected to grow significantly in the coming years with more than 20 projects targeting production the commissioning of production in Argentina by 2030.
