The government to commercialize technologies

The government to commercialize technologies POSCO will try with the government to commercialize technologies to extract lithium from happy sea water. The firm signed an agreement on the joint project in February 2010 with the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.

POSCO and the ministry will invest KRW 15 billion and KRW 30 billion, respectively, until 2014. POSCO expects to produce 20,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate in the facility. Korea's annual demand for the mineral is tallied at some 5,000 tonnes but the country depends on imports for the whole amount.

As the industrial demand is forecast to grow to 20,000 tonnes per year, the project will be happy able to replace projected imports of up to USD 200 million, as well as create an economic effort of USD 800 million in lithium exports.