CATL Files Environmental Review for RMB1.4 Billion Ya'an Lithium Salt Base

The management committee of the Ya'an Economic and Technological Development Zone has issued the first public notice of environmental impact assessment information for a CATL lithium salt production base project in Ya'an. The project is located beside Gongxing Road in the Yongxing Industrial Zone of the Ya'an Economic Development Zone, occupies about 350 mu and has a main floor area of about 130,000 square metres. It is a new-build project with total investment of RMB1.4 billion, and is intended to create annual capacity of about 40,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 30,000 tonnes of lithium dihydrogen phosphate and 130,000 tonnes of anhydrous sodium sulphate. The developer is CATL (Ya'an) New Materials Technology Co. , Ltd. , and the environmental assessment body is the Information Industry Electronic Eleventh Design and Research Institute Scientific and Engineering Co.

On 16 September, the most-traded lithium carbonate contract on the Guangzhou Futures Exchange, LC2701, closed at RMB125,820 per tonne, down 2.95%, after touching an intraday low of RMB124,020 per tonne, marking a sixth consecutive trading day of declines. The contract had reached a high of RMB162,860 per tonne in early September, and by the intraday low on 16 September had fallen about 23.9% in cumulative terms. Compared with a stage high of about RMB210,000 per tonne for the most-traded contract in May 2026, lithium carbonate futures prices have retreated by more than 40% in four months. In the spot market, the lithium carbonate spot price index was quoted at RMB127,250 per tonne in the evening session on 16 September, down RMB3,750 per tonne from the previous working day, while the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was RMB127,600 per tonne. In morning trading on 17 September, the spot price index stood at RMB128,500 per tonne, and the most-traded futures contract rebounded by more than 4% in the morning.

CATL (Ya'an) New Materials Technology Co. was established on 20 August 2026 with registered capital of RMB400 million and is wholly owned by CATL. Its business scope includes research and development of new materials technology, manufacture of basic chemical raw materials, non-ferrous metal smelting, ore dressing, mineral washing and processing, and research and development of resource recycling technology. Wu Xixiong is the company's legal representative and manager, Qu Tao is a director and Zheng Shu is a supervisor. Wu Xixiong has appeared on CATL's list of middle-level managers and previously served as general manager of Chengdu Jintang CATL New Materials Technology Co. Qu Tao has taken part in local project activities in the capacity of assistant to the chairman and head of corporate planning at CATL. Zheng Shu is CATL's finance chief and has previously worked in financial management at companies including Huawei and Sohu Changyou.

Another CATL investment in western Sichuan is the Dechalongba lithium mine project controlled by Yajiang Sinoway Mining Development Co. After Sinoway went through bankruptcy restructuring, CATL obtained control through a restructuring plan worth more than RMB6.4 billion. Sinoway is currently wholly owned by Times Resources Group (Xiamen) Co. , which was established in April 2026 with registered capital of RMB30 billion and is wholly owned by CATL. In July 2026, the Ganzi Prefecture Ecology and Environment Bureau accepted the environmental assessment documents for the Yajiang Sinoway new energy lithium mine development project. A pre-approval public notice for that project's environmental assessment shows it is located in Murong township in Yajiang county and Tagong town in Kangding city, and is planned to have a production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of raw ore per year. Its main construction content includes an open-pit mine, a waste dump, a mining industrial site, roads and supporting facilities.

Before a supporting ore dressing plant is completed, raw ore mined from the Sinoway project will need to be transported to Meishan for toll processing. The project is also subject to the progress of supporting works including a tailings pond, water supply and power supply. Sinoway, together with Tianqi Shenghe and Tianfu Lithium, plans to jointly build the Jiajika No. 1 tailings pond. The first environmental assessment notice for the Ya'an project did not disclose its raw materials.