US-based Piedmont Lithium says it intends to build a new lithium hydroxide plant in southeast Tennessee, Kallanish reports.

The $600 million plant, expected to produce 30,000 tonnes/year of lithium hydroxide, will be built in Etowah in McMinn County, Tennessee. Production is scheduled to begin in 2025 and the plant is projected to process lithium concentrate sourced principally from Piedmont’s international project investments in Canada and Ghana, the company says.

It says the plant is expected to be the largest processing plant that will be built in the United States to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide for electric vehicle batteries.

“The rapid electrification of the automotive market has led to massive investments in electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery production in the United States, creating a critical need for lithium hydroxide produced in the US,” says president and ceo Keith Phillips.

A definitive feasibility study on the project is expected by year-end 2022, the company says.

The Kiewet Engineering Group and the Primera Group have been contracted to perform the front-end engineering design. The plant that will create 120 jobs features an innovative Metso: Outotec process. That process eliminates the acid-leaching of spodumene and the production of sodium sulfate wastes.

The Tennessee plant will be Piedmont’s second lithium hydroxide production facility. Its planned Carolina lithium operation in western North Carolina is expected to produce 30,000 t/y by 2026. Current total US production of lithium hydroxide is 15,000 t/y.

Piedmont had said earlier this year that it planned to build a second lithium hydroxide plant, although no location was announced. The company has locked in its supply for the two US plants in deals with partners Sayona Mining in Quebec and Atlantic Lithium in Ghana. Piedmont says it expects to produce the first spodumene concentrate in Quebec in 2023 and in Ghana in 2024.