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Themis Qi

Amid geopolitical tensions, China’s Tianqi Lithium has decided to skip Africa and will stick to domestic salt lakes to secure the supply of a battery mineral, according to its president Frank Ha Chun-shing.
The move comes as the oil shock stemming from Middle Eastern conflicts is driving up global demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and battery energy storage systems (BESSs).
Lithium, which can be extracted from hard rock and salt flat brines, can be processed into lithium carbonate, a raw material widely used in consumer end markets that include electronics and drones.
Tianqi, which operates the world’s largest lithium brines in Chile and the world’s largest hard-rock lithium mine project in Australia, is facing tighter restrictions in its overseas operations amid resource nationalism.
In Zimbabwe, the world’s seventh-largest supplier of hard-rock lithium, the government suspended the export of lithium concentrates in late February to force foreign miners to invest in local processing. Meanwhile, in Chile, Tianqi lost significant influence over the Salar de Atacama – the world’s largest lithium salt lake – after the state increased its control over the resource in January.

“Fractional policy oversight has emerged, making the global supply chain no longer a [single] piece,” Tianqi’s Ha told the South China Morning Post in mid-April.
Though Tianqi has no exposure to Africa, Ha said the firm still needed to invest in new lithium resource projects.
“But we will not go to Africa and instead eye the salt lakes like those in mainland China,” said the president of the Chengdu-based battery mineral supplier.
In response to the Zimbabwe export ban, two Chinese companies – Huayou Cobalt and Sinomine – have promised to build a lithium sulphate plant in the country, which is Africa’s top lithium supplier, accounting for 9.3 per cent of global mine production of lithium in 2024.
While China supplied more than 64 per cent of global lithium chemical products last year, only 16.5 per cent of worldwide lithium reserves are located in the country.
Tianqi acquired a 20 per cent stake in Shigatse Zabuye in Tibet in 2014, securing access to the Zabuye Salt Lake, the third-largest in the world and largest in Asia.
Earlier this month, Tianqi’s new chairwoman Jiang Anqi also noted that the firm would shift its focus to the exploration of domestic mines given current geopolitical risks.
“Against the backdrop of increasing uncertainty in the current external environment, we believe that the development of high-quality domestic lithium resources cannot be delayed any longer,” said Jiang, who in 2024 took over the helm of the company founded by her father, Jiang Weiping.
China’s lithium carbonate prices surged as high as 180,000 yuan (US$26,358) per tonne in January, tripling the level seen in June 2025, due to intensifying resource nationalism and rising demand for EVs and artificial intelligence data centres. The battery mineral was trading at 177,900 yuan per tonne on Friday.
Strong demand in the downstream market has contributed to outstanding financial performances by several lithium suppliers. Tianqi, for example, saw its first-quarter net profit skyrocket by as much as 1,818 per cent year on year to 1.7 billion yuan, after swinging to a net profit of 463 million yuan last year from a 7.9 billion yuan loss in 2024.
However, the lithium mineral market is getting crowded. Zijin Mining, China’s largest gold miner, ramped up its lithium carbonate output nearly 100 times to 25,500 tonnes last year, while China’s EV battery king Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) plans to set up an investment arm to secure raw material supply.
Tianqi’s Ha has been advocating for a globally unified pricing system to protect producers of intermediate products from an inversion of pricing, as miners and battery makers are taking more profits from the industry.
With tightening national controls and profit squeezes, Ha would like to see fewer national restrictions on exports and a healthier industry profit distribution for a “win-win” situation.


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Zimbabwe

China’s Tianqi Lithium to favour domestic salt lakes over Africa amid resource nationalism

Mining trucks load lithium sulphate in Atacama Salt Flat, Chile, on July 29, 2024. Photo: Anadolu via Getty Images

Tianqi Lithium president Frank Ha Chun-shing. Photo: Handout

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The global energy shock may further power Ganfeng’s growth this year, according to analysts. Photo: Handout

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In response to Zimbabwe’s export ban, two Chinese companies have promised to build a domestic lithium sulphate plant


In response to Zimbabwe’s export ban, two Chinese companies have promised to build a domestic lithium sulphate plant.


China’s Tianqi Lithium to favour domestic salt lakes over Africa amid resource nationalism

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In response to Zimbabwe’s export ban, two Chinese companies have promised to build a domestic lithium sulphate plant

In response to Zimbabwe’s export ban, two Chinese companies have promised to build a domestic lithium sulphate plant