LG Ensol agrees to supply 24 tons of lithium from Canada... “Strengthening the North American supply chain”

LG Energy Solutions has decided to strengthen its local North American supply chain from raw material procurement to battery production by receiving a large-scale supply of Canadian lithium concentrate.

LG Ensol announced on the 8th that it signed a long-term lithium concentrate supply contract with Elevra Lithium, a North American lithium producer.

Accordingly, LG Ensol will receive 240,000 tons of lithium concentrate for four years from the end of this year.

This is enough to make batteries for about 700,000 high-performance electric vehicles, and is produced at the North American Lithium mine operated by Elebra Lithium in Quebec, Canada.

Lithium concentrate is a raw material obtained by processing and concentrating lithium ore.

After a purification process, it becomes lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. Lithium carbonate is used in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and ternary batteries, and lithium hydroxide is used in high-performance high-nickel ternary batteries.

LG Ensol explained that this contract is meaningful in that it has secured the front end of the value chain (supply chain) leading to raw materials (lithium concentrate), materials (lithium carbonate, hydroxide, cathode materials), and batteries in North America.

As we have secured raw materials at the pre-processing stage, we can respond more flexibly to demands that vary depending on the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) market conditions.

Lee Kang-yeol, head of LG Ensol's purchasing center (executive director), said, "This contract is to strengthen the North American raw material supply chain and respond to the rapidly growing North American battery market. We will respond more quickly to customer demand based on a stable supply and demand of lithium concentrate."

In North America, demand for ESS is rapidly increasing due to the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the spread of renewable energy.

LG Ensol announced that it plans to increase its production capacity of LFP batteries for ESS in North America to more than 50GWh by the end of this year.