POSCO s Argentine lithium lake valuation backfires
Posted : 2021-03-07 15:56
By Nam Hyun-woo
POSCO s self-promotion of its investment into an Argentine lake having lithium reserves appears to be backfiring, as analysts and industry officials have raised doubts about the company s prediction that sales from the project will reach 35 trillion won ($31 billion).
Last week, POSCO said it was expecting a whopping 35 trillion won in value from the lithium reserves in the Hombre Muerto salt lake in Argentina, which the company acquired extraction rights to from Australia s Galaxy Resources for 310 billion won in 2018.
POSCO said that it expects this because it confirmed last year that there were 13.5 million tons of lithium in the lake, a six-fold increase from the 2.2 million tons estimated at the time of the investment, and the sharp hike in lithium prices over the last several months. But the company did not specify how it calculated the 35 trillion won.