Centenario: a lithium production complex operational in 2024

The Centenario deposit is exceptional. The expected operational and environmental performances place this project among the best producers in the lithium industry. In fact, the pilot plant installed in 2020 achieved 90% direct extraction of lithium carbonate, the best performance in the industry.

In November 2021, the Group began construction of its production plant by signing a partnership with the Chinese steel group Tsingshan, the world’s leading producer of stainless steels. Construction work began in early 2022, and the plant’s first industrial units will be commissioned successively from November 2023.

According to the announced schedule, full capacity of 24,000 tonnes of LCE will be reached by mid-2025.

The economic, social and societal benefits of the Centenario project are significant for the Salta region and for Argentina as a whole.

Of the total investment of US$600 million, US$390 million will be reinjected into the Argentine economy during the construction phase of the industrial complex. A local employment clause is included in the collective agreement signed with the Argentine construction union.

During the production phase, US$2.9 billion will be reinjected into the national economy over the first twenty years of production.

In terms of CSR, Eramine is committed to supporting the development of the local economy through training, development and integration programs for local subcontractors. The aim is to maximize indirect local employment linked to the project.

In 2022, Eramet’s economic contribution in Argentina amounted to €210 million.

In this desert area, Eramet has taken care to integrate responsible water resource management right from the design stage of its process.

The extraction process achieves a yield of 90% with a processing time of around one week. By comparison, the conventional process, based on natural evaporation, offers a yield of less than 50% in eighteen months.

Developed by Eramet in conjunction with IFPEN (Institut français du pétrole et des énergies nouvelles) and Seprosys, this process works essentially like a sponge: it captures the lithium contained in brines. This is then extracted using brackish water drawn from 400 m below the surface. The brine is then reinjected into the subsoil, while over 60% of the water used is recycled in the process.

Eramet is currently modelling the direct reinjection of brine into the aquifers of the Centenario-Ratones salar. At the same time, Eramet Ideas teams are working continuously to improve the environmental efficiency of the process, in particular by further reducing water use.

The project site covers a total area of 500 km², which is inhabited intermittently by around fifteen people known as Puesteros. The first village, Santa Rosa de los Pastos Grandes, is 50 kilometers from the site and is home to 250 people.

Right from the exploration phase, Eramine Sudamérica engaged in ongoing dialogue with the indigenous peoples living around its Centenario Ratones project, in the province of Salta, Argentina. This is part of a process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) involving the Andean communities close to the project. The FPIC process, carried out in accordance with the provisions of ILO Convention 169, led to the granting of consent in February 2020, and the communities continue to be kept periodically informed of the project’s progress.

During the many consultations that have taken place over the years, Eramine has documented all the community engagement activities carried out since the start of exploration activities and throughout the preparation of the environmental and social impact study. An awareness-raising program for indigenous peoples regarding FPIC rights was concluded to ensure that everyone understood why the company was engaging with them. At the same time, a complaints mechanism was set up.

FPIC is part of the Initiative for Responsible Mining (IRMA Mining Standard), to which Eramine is committed. Eramet’s Human Rights policy is committed to respecting and preserving the traditions and cultures of indigenous communities.

Eramine’s transparency regarding the assessment and reduction of project impacts, particularly on the environment, plays a very important role in the relationship of trust established with communities.  In accordance with national regulations, and in partnership with UCASAL (Catholic University of Salta), Eramine has set up a program to train community environmental observers.

https://youtu.be/QYmHqfJAHfQ

In 2022, the community investment program was stepped up.

• 23 individual solar water heaters installed for Puesteros in Centenario and the village of Santa Maria de los Pastos Grandes.

Various student support initiatives were undertaken in partnership with the University of Salta, the Anpuy Foundation, the Campo Quijano Technical School and the Ministry of Education.

• 275 people, including 215 young people, received vocational training in 2022,
• 8 received scholarships.

Finally, in partnership with Argentina’s National Institute of Industrial Technology, the SolarInti Foundation and the NGO Fe y Alegría, Eramine developed a support program in 2022:

• 30 micro-entrepreneurs
• 12 farmers from the Centenario salar received technical support.

In 2015, Eramine launched the Quinoa project, a program to reintroduce the ancestral cultivation of quinoa to the region, the main aim of which is to create alternative sources of income.

In the area of health, and to tackle widespread problems in the region such as child malnutrition, several projects have been launched to help local populations improve their diets.

Thanks to the Community Organic Garden project and the Quinoa Project, local people now have access to high-quality staple foods, enabling them to enrich and balance their diet.