Posco and Hancock Forge Alliance for Lithium Processing in Australia

South Korea's leading steel and battery materials producer, Posco Holdings, has signed a preliminary agreement with Australian mining company Hancock Prospecting to jointly invest in a lithium processing plant in Australia. Through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed this week, both companies plan to find a suitable location in Australia to build a facility with a capacity of 30,000 tons of lithium per year, intended for electric vehicle batteries. This agreement deepens the existing partnership between Posco and Hancock, which already includes joint projects in iron ore and natural gas extraction. Posco had already acquired a 12.5% stake in Hancock's Roy Hill iron ore mine in 2010, and together they acquired Senex Energy, an Australian natural gas supplier, in 2020. Kim Jun-hyung, Executive Vice President of Posco Holdings, affirmed in a statement: "We will examine the optimal business model for this lithium partnership to achieve significant results." Looking to the future, Posco, through its subsidiary Posco Future M, aims to strengthen its battery materials supply chain and reduce the dependency of the South Korean battery industry on raw materials under Chinese control. Recently, the Posco Pilbara Lithium Solution Company Joint Venture, co-led by Posco and Australia's Pilbara Minerals, completed the construction of its second lithium hydroxide plant in Gwangyang, South Korea. Additionally, earlier this year, lithium processing facilities with a capacity of 68,000 tons of brine and spodumene lithium were completed in Argentina.