South Korean chemical company LG Chem said on Sunday it is partnering with China’s Huayou Group to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) plant in Morocco. It will have 50,000 tons per year output, with mass production set for 2026.
The pair signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly build four facilities:
- an LFP cathode material plant and a lithium conversion plant in Morocco
- a high pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant and a precursor plant in Indonesia.
LG Chem CEO Shin Hak-cheol said: “We will actively respond to the emerging LFP cathode material market with the Morocco plant as our global base. Our goal is to create a strong, vertically integrated material supply chain – flowing from raw materials to precursors and cathode materials – and solidify our status as the world’s top comprehensive battery materials producer.”
The company said Morocco has the world’s largest reserve of phosphate rocks. LFP cathode materials produced there will be supplied to the North American market under the US Free Trade Agreement, to which Morocco is a signatory.
LG Chem plans to expand the business into lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate (LMFP) cathode materials, a mixture of manganese and LFP that provides more capacity and better output than LFP cathode materials.
The two companies said Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves and production. It is promoting battery manufacturing and the electric vehicle sector. They are considering setting up a precursor plant there with a production capacity of 50,000 tons per year. Finally, they will discuss the construction of a plant to extract mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) from nickel ore for precursor production.
