Recently, the draft of the environmental impact assessment report for the expansion and renovation project of the battery grade sulfate unit of Wanhua Chemical (Yantai) Battery Material Technology Co., Ltd. was publicly released for comments.

The project is expected to produce 81,000 tons of nickel sulfate crystals hexahydrate, 16,000 tons of cobalt sulfate crystals heptahydrate, 9500 tons of manganese sulfate, as well as 7960 tons of basic magnesium carbonate, 18,000 cubic meters of magnesium sulfate solution, 500 tons of copper concentrate, 2500 tons of chemical manganese dioxide powder and 1000 tons of crude nickel cobalt hydroxide.

According to public information, the device is mainly used to process and manufacture battery grade salts. The expansion serves to:

a. Supply raw materials for precursor production equipment, while utilizing some self-produced by-products as auxiliary materials for the project to achieve cost reduction of precursors. In addition, this expansion increases the production capacity of nickel sulfate hexahydrate crystals from the 10,000 gold tons to 18,000 gold tons.

b. Ensure the stable quality of precursor products in production and solve the problem of unstable or excessive magnetic substances in battery grade sulfates on the market by Wanhua Chemical’s hydrometallurgical technology.

c. Promote closed loop production of raw materials, realizing the recycling and utilization of nickel cobalt manganese lithium waste generated during the production process of precursor, positive electrode materials, and other subsequent battery materials.