 | This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (May 2024) |
 View of the open pit at the Greenbushes mine in January 2023 | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
  Greenbushes mine Location in Western Australia | |
| Location | Greenbushes |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 33°51′58″S 116°03′53″E / 33.865976°S 116.064756°E |
| Production | |
| Products | Lithium |
| Production | 1.95 million t (4.3 billion lb) |
| Financial year | 2020 |
| Type | Open-pit |
| History | |
| Discovered | 1906[citation needed] |
| Opened | 1983 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Talison Lithium |
| Website | www |
| Year of acquisition | 2014 |
 | |
Greenbushes mine is an open-pit lithium mining operation located south of the town of Greenbushes, Western Australia. It is the world's largest hard-rock lithium mine,[1][2] producing approximately 1.95 million tonnes (4.3 billion pounds) of lithium spodumene annually.[3] The mine is 250 kilometres (160 miles) south of Perth and 90 kilometres (56 miles) southeast of the port of Bunbury.
The mine is owned and operated by Talison Lithium, which is a joint venture partnership as of 2014[update] between the Tianqi Lithium Corporation (owning 51%) and the Albemarle Corporation (49%).[1] At the mine's current size, it can fulfil a third of the worldwide demand for lithium spodumene concentrate,[1] which is used to produce lithium hydroxide, a component of lithium-ion batteries.
Global demand for lithium is expected[as of?] to grow[contradictory] at a rate of 33.3% annually,[3] and as such the mine is undergoing expansion[as of?] along with the construction of the two nearby lithium processing facilities.[4] The Kemerton facility is owned by Albemarle Corporation and the Kwinana facility is owned by Tianqi. Lithium industry revenue has increased at an annual rate of 8.6% from 2019–2020, to a total[when?] of $2.7 billion.[5]
- ^ a b c Allday, A. (2020). Salt, Lithium and Other Mineral Mining in Australia. Sydney : IBIS World.
- ^ Kurmelovs, Royce (11 November 2022). "How Australia became the world's greatest lithium supplier". www.bbc.com. BBC. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022.
- ^ a b Roskill. (2019). Lithium: Outlook to 2030, 17th Edition. London: Roskill.
- ^ "Research & Insights | S&P Global". www.spglobal.com. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
- ^ Martin, Gunther; Rentsch, Lars; Höck, Michael; Bertau, Martin (January 2017). "Lithium market research – global supply, future demand and price development". Energy Storage Materials. 6: 171–179. Bibcode:2017EneSM...6..171M. doi:10.1016/j.ensm.2016.11.004. ISSN 2405-8297.