China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association: Domestic alumina companies are accelerating the development of lithium extraction projects, which will create economies of scale and should not be underestimated.

On September 19, 2025, the Suining International Lithium Battery Industry Conference was held. Ge Honglin, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, stated in his speech that China has formed three lithium extraction processes from lithium minerals: lithium mica extraction, lithium pyroxene extraction, and salt lake lithium extraction. Currently, the production costs of lithium carbonate are 70,000-80,000 yuan/ton, 60,000-70,000 yuan/ton, and 40,000-50,000 yuan/ton respectively. The market shares of the three processes are 22%, 47%, and 19% respectively. In addition, many domestic alumina companies are also accelerating their lithium extraction projects, which will soon have a significant impact. Therefore, lithium raw material companies should focus on future development trends, rationally assess the industry's scale and supply-demand relationship, especially rationally judge the development trend of new energy batteries and new energy vehicles, to prevent misinformation and the negative impact of "competing in the same circle" of downstream and end products. They should plan their strategic positioning and coordinate business operations and risk prevention.