Australian lithium developer Liontown Resources has entered an agreement with Japanese trading house Sumitomo to investigate developing a lithium supply chain between Australia and Japan.
The agreement will support a jointly-funded study to evaluate the feasibility of using lithium concentrate (spodumene) from Liontown's Kathleen Valley project in Western Australia to produce downstream lithium hydroxide in Japan, Perth-based Liontown said. It will also consider using a future lithium sulphate product produced at an Australian plant, to produce lithium hydroxide in Japan.
The study is part of Liontown's overall downstream development strategy, and is expected to take two years to complete. But no further details were provided.
Kathleen Valley is expected to market its first direct shipping ore to customers later this year and is on track to produce its first concentrate in mid-2024, ramping up to an initial capacity of 500,000 t/yr. Binding offtake agreements are in place with South Korea's LG Energy Solution and US automakers Tesla and Ford.
The only lithium hydroxide production facility in Japan is the 10,000 t/yr Naraha plant that was recently commissioned by Australia-Argentina lithium firm Allkem and its Japanese partner Toyota-Tsusho.
