When the price of lithium salt remains high, the distribution of lithium resources frequently spread good news.

On the evening of August 8, Ganfeng Lithium announced that the company had recently received notice from Shanghai Ganfeng that Shanghai Ganfeng had completed its offer to acquire Bacanora, which currently holds a 100% stake in Bacanora. The company's Sonora project has a total lithium resource of about 8.82 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, which is currently one of the largest lithium resource projects in the world.

Ganfeng Lithium previously issued a performance forecast that the net profit in the first half of the year is expected to be 7.2 billion yuan to 9 billion yuan, and that in the second quarter is expected to be 3.675 billion yuan to 5.475 billion yuan.

The acquisition of nearly 1.6 billion yuan took more than a year.

On May 7, 2021, Ganfeng Lithium issued a related acquisition announcement.

According to the announcement at the time, Shanghai Ganfeng, a subsidiary that held a 17.41 per cent stake in Bacanora before the deal was completed, planned to offer no more than 190 million pounds (about 1.556 billion yuan at the current exchange rate) for all issued shares in the company.

After more than a year of acquisition progress, Ganfeng Lithium announced on the evening of August 8 that Shanghai Ganfeng had completed its offer to acquire Bacanora, which currently holds a 100% stake in Bacanora.

According to the previous announcement, Bacanora's main business is lithium clay resource project management, and its main asset is the lithium clay Sonora project in Mexico. According to the feasibility study report of the Sonora project, the total lithium resource of the project is about 8.82 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, which is currently one of the largest lithium resource projects in the world.

According to the annual report, Ganfeng Lithium had held a 50 per cent stake in Sonora at the project level by the end of 2021. At the same time, the company said that thanks to the unique advantages of lithium clay resources, the lithium extraction process of the project is characterized by the advantages of both ore and salt lake lithium extraction, which can complete the lithium extraction process in a short time at the same speed as ore extraction. Lithium extraction can also be completed at a lower cost at a cost similar to that of brine, and the project is still under construction.

Industry insiders said that the completion of the Sonora project will further improve the company's self-supply rate of lithium resources.

In recent years, Ganfeng Lithium has continuously strengthened the reserves of upstream lithium resources. On the evening of July 11, Ganfeng Lithium announced that Ganfeng International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, or its wholly-owned subsidiary plans to acquire 100% shares of Lithea, which is estimated to have 11.06 million tons of lithium carbonate reserves, no more than 6.5 billion yuan. The company said that the project plans a capacity of 30,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year and can be expanded to 50,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year depending on natural resource conditions.

In 2022, Ganfeng Lithium's ongoing projects include overseas projects such as Argentina Cauchari-Olaroz, Mariana, Mexico Sonora, etc., and domestic projects such as Jiangxi Xinyu Mahon Phase IV, Sichuan Ganfeng, Huizhou Ganfeng, Ganzhou Ganfeng, etc., covering upstream lithium resource development, mid-stream lithium product production, lithium battery manufacturing and recycling.

The price of lithium salt rises again, and the prosperity of the industry is high.

The strong downstream demand of the new energy vehicle industry has pushed up the demand for lithium resources.

The report shows that lithium mining projects usually take six to 19 years from the initial feasibility study to actual production, making it the longest battery technology.

Everbright Securities said that the lithium salt industry is still in a state of tight supply from 2022 to 2023, and does not rule out the possibility that the price of lithium salt will exceed 500000 yuan / ton again in the second half of 2022.

Jin Yi, an analyst at Shanghai Nonferrous Network, told China Securities News that domestic lithium prices recently ended the horizontal trend from the end of June to mid-July and showed an upward trend. As of Aug. 8, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 473000 yuan per ton, a three-month high and up 70.14% from the beginning of this year.

At the same time, it is reported that the world's largest lithium miner Yabao said a few days ago, the lithium industry is expected to continue to outstrip supply, until 2030, automakers will still face fierce competition for lithium resources.

The application of lithium in power batteries makes raw materials the core of global competition. It is reported that carmakers from Strantis to BMW and Ford have invested in lithium start-ups.

In the context of lithium salt prices remain high, the United States Yabao raised its profit forecast three times this year, is expected to be able to increase production and cash flow faster than expected. In the lithium business, its latest guidance on Aug. 3 said that adjusted EBITDA for the whole of 2022 is expected to grow 500% 550% year-on-year, higher than the previous forecast of more than 300% year-on-year growth. Adjusted net sales of lithium were $891.5 million, an increase of $571.2 million over the same period last year.