The French mining and metallurgical company reported it has successfully signed a US$400M deal with Glencore to market lithium chemicals from its Argentinian Ratones brine project.  

Last week, French mining and metallurgical giant Eramet reported the company had reached an agreement with Swiss commodity trader Glencore. The agreement stipulates both Eramet and Glencore will jointly market approximately 50,000t of lithium chemicals produced from Eramet’s Argentina site over a five-year period. As part of this, Glencore will pay Eramet US$400M and the volumes will be sold at market prices over this time period.  

As of July 2023, the only project Eramet is developing in Argentina is the Ratones project, also referred to as the Eramine project. The company aims to produce 24,000t LCE per year from this project at full capacity. It is from this facility, where the lithium stipulated within the Glencore-Eramet agreement will be sourced.  

Eramet is developing a direct lithium extraction (DLE) process to produce lithium from the Ratones salar in cooperation with Chinese fellow mining giant Tsingshan. Numerous other projects attempting to employ DLE technology in their lithium flowsheets have run into technical and engineering issues in the past, leading to increases in the proposed capital and operating costs of these projects. While the Ratones project still has progress to make when it comes to commissioning, the agreement from Glencore is a step in the right direction for Eramet and a vote of confidence in the project.