(Yicai Global) Sept. 29 -- GEM, one of China's biggest suppliers of battery raw materials, plans to invest CNY13 billion (USD1.81 billion) with partners to build a nickel ore deep processing industrial park and a battery recycling park in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

The combined project will include a CNY10.8 billion investment in the nickel processing park, with raw materials from Tsingshan Holdings, one of GEM’s partners, which has nickel mining rights in Indonesia, Shanghai-based GEM said yesterday. The waste battery recycling park will cost CNY2.2 billion.

The nickel processing base will include a plant built by GEM to turn out nickel-cobalt-manganese sulfate and ultra-high nickel ternary precursors, a battery-grade lithium carbonate production plant built by partner Weiming Environment, and an electrolyte material plant by third-party investors.

Nickel-cobalt-manganese sulfate products are the main raw materials used for lithium battery ternary precursors.

The park also plans to attract other outside investors in the future to build a lithium battery anode material plant and a lithium battery separator plant to form a relatively complete lithium material industrial chain, GEM said.

A power battery recycling plant and a scrap vehicle treatment base are envisioned for the other park, along with plans to lay out lithium battery material-related projects.

This is the second lithium battery material plant in Wenzhou that Weiming Environment is involved in. The company announced in April that it, along with Tsingshan Holdings and another partner, would invest in another processing plant for lithium battery materials using Indonesian nickel resources in Wenzhou.

Shares of GEM [SHE: 002340] dipped 0.4 percent to close at CNY7.42 (USD1.04) today, while Weiming Environment [SHA: 603568] fell 0.9 percent to CNY23.53.

Editor: Peter Thomas