The Mariana project is located in the Salar de Llullaillaco, in the province of Salta (Argentina), some 430 km from the provincial capital. From Salta City, it takes some 8-10 hours to reach the site, which lies 95 km from the nearest town, Tolar Grande, at 3,750 masl. Litio Minera Argentina S.A., a Ganfeng subsidiary in Argentina, is leading the project.
With an investment of around six hundred million dollars (USD 600,000,000), Ganfeng Lithium owns 100% of the share capital. It is estimated that over 1,300 direct and indirect jobs will be created during the construction phase.
In June 2021, the Mining Secretariat of the province of Salta approved the Environmental Impact Study. Solar energy will be used to power the plant in the salt flats, ensuring the project is fueled by renewable energy.
The Mariana project will be exclusively supplied by power provided by an off-grid solar farm, producing 120 MW from solar panels with 288 MWp of battery storage. The plan is to expand capacity to 150 MW in solar panels, and 360 MWp in battery storage, exclusively manufactured by Ganfeng.
The system is designed to respect and comply with international standards in quality, energy-saving and environmental care, and has the capacity to supply both the company’s various operational facilities and the crew camp set up for approximately 500 people.
In 2022, work began to build industrial facilities to complete the lithium chloride production process, in the town of General Güemes, located in the center of the province of Salta, in Argentina. As part of this project, the company is building its own railway station to transport brine from the site in the Llullaillaco salt flats to the industrial plant.
Concentrated brine from the Mariana project will be transported to Güemes using tank-containers as part of an initiative to give the whole process greater flexibility. The design of the Güemes facilities envisages zero liquid effluents, as well as the reuse of all currents to prepare the reagents.