(TibetanReview.net, Jan25’26) – China says it has achieved a major technological breakthrough which makes much more profitable its extraction of lithium, often referred to as “white gold”, from its salt lake lithium resources. “China’s” primary lithium mines are concentrated in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Qinghai province as well as other historically Tibetan areas in Sichuan province, besides Xinjiang, along with significant lepidolite deposits in Jiangxi province.
The key locations include the Jiajika and Lijiagou mines in Sichuan’s Amdo Ngaba region, salt lakes in the Qaidam Basin (Qinghai), and the Zabuye Salt Lake in TAR, all parts of historial Tibet.
The country has achieved a major industrial breakthrough in extracting lithium, a critical metal for electric vehicle batteries, by launching the world’s first 20,000-tonne production line that uses novel technology to extract lithium from salt lake brine, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Jan 23.
The facility, built by Qinghai CITIC Guoan Technology Development Co., Ltd. in Qinghai Province has begun operating at target capacity, the report said, citing China’s party mouthpiece People’s Daily Jan 22.
The core technology, a proprietary process with multiple patents, raised the lithium recovery rate from the salt pan stage, where industry averages were below 50%, to over 78%. Furthermore, the overall lithium recovery rate across the entire production workshop surged from 75.38% to 90.41%, the report said.
The new production line represents a major advancement in processing lithium from salt lakes, a type of resource abundant in “China” but historically challenging to exploit efficiently due to high loss rates during traditional solar evaporation in salt pans, the report said.
What is more, the technique also ensures that the comprehensive utilization of associated resources like potassium and boron remains unaffected, promoting synergies between resource efficiency, economic benefit, and environmental sustainability, the report added.
Lithium is a fundamental component for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), consumer electronics, and large-scale energy storage systems.