Liming Heavy Industry's LM Vertical Mill Facilitates the Green Commissioning of the 20,000 TPY Battery-Grade Lithium Carbonate Project

The Prospect of Lithium Battery Materials Industry

China's lithium battery materials industry has formed a "one-super-many-strong" global competition pattern, accounting for more than 60% of the global market share. In 2025, the market scale of lithium battery materials in China is expected to exceed 670 billion yuan. With the explosion of the energy storage market and the expansion of emerging scenarios, the demand for lithium battery materials is constantly increasing. And spodumene is a key raw material for lithium battery cathode materials, and its resource conversion efficiency and technological innovation level have become the key factors measuring the core competitiveness of the lithium battery industry.

To efficiently convert spodumene into the core components required for the production of lithium battery materials, a series of fine processing is required. After being crushed, spodumene is finely ground by a powder mill to fully dissociate the minerals. Then, gangue minerals are separated by flotation to increase the grade of lithium concentrate. After high-temperature calcination, it is converted from the α-phase to the β-phase to enhance the chemical reaction activity. Then, it is acidified or alkali-leached to generate soluble lithium salts. Finally, the lithium solution is purified to obtain lithium carbonate products. In the entire lithium extraction process, the grinding efficiency of the spodumene powder mill directly affects the subsequent lithium recovery rate. Therefore, high-performance powder grinding equipment is very crucial, among which the LM vertical mill performs outstandingly in spodumene powder making.

The spodumene processed by the LM Vertical Mill enters the center of the mill's grinding disc through an air-locked feeding device. Driven by centrifugal force, it moves toward the periphery and enters the grinding roller track, where it is crushed by the extrusion, grinding, and shearing forces of the grinding rollers. At the same time, hot air is ejected at high speed from the air ring: it blows coarse materials back to the grinding disc for re-grinding, dries the suspended materials, and carries fine powders into the separator for classification. Qualified fine powders are collected as products by dust collection equipment, while unqualified coarse powders fall back to the grinding disc for cyclic grinding, thus efficiently completing the entire operation.

LM Vertical Mill Facilitates the Implementation of Spodumene Powder-Making Project

Given that the selection of grinding equipment in the spodumene powder-making process directly affects production efficiency, product quality, and even the competitiveness of the industrial chain, the user enterprise was extremely prudent when choosing a cooperative partner. Based on the strict evaluation of equipment stability, process adaptability, and full-life-cycle service capabilities, and after multiple rounds of technical benchmarking, the enterprise finally selected Liming Heavy Industry as its strategic partner. Liming Heavy Industry provided LM Vertical Roller Mills for the roasted spodumene grinding process in this project. Relying on mature technical routes such as high-temperature roasting and sulfuric acid leaching, the cooperative enterprise has built a large-scale production base with an annual output of 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate.

Processed Material: Roasted Spodumene

Equipment Used: Liming Heavy Industry LM Vertical Roller Mill

Liming Heavy Industry's team conducted careful selection, rigorous discussion and scientific configuration for the entire service system, covering design, scheme selection, process flow, system configuration, as well as manufacturing and after-sales service. This enabled the project to achieve high-yield and high-efficiency development. The entire production line features a concise design, scientific and reasonable equipment structure, green and environmentally friendly production, stable operation, and high efficiency with energy conservation, which has been highly praised by the customer.

Core Competitiveness of LM Vertical Mill

In the lithium extraction process, the grinding process directly affects the quality and production efficiency of downstream products. Liming Heavy Industry's LM series vertical roller mills are developed to meet the needs of new energy material preparation. Integrating advanced technologies from Germany's Loesche and Pfeiffer, combined with our company's nearly 40 years of manufacturing experience, the equipment integrates crushing, drying, grinding, classification, and conveying functions in one unit and holds a number of independent intellectual property rights. As a large-scale grinding equipment with high efficiency and energy conservation, the LM vertical roller mill provides strong support for improving lithium resource processing with its stable performance and advanced technical indicators.

The economic efficiency of an industrial powder-making project is not only related to equipment performance, but also needs to align with the actual needs of enterprises. Liming Heavy Industry has a professional design institute team that provides customers with customized EPC turnkey services for powder grinding projects. It offers full-process guidance from the early project initiation to the final commissioning, ensuring that customers' integrated and high-quality needs are met. The project construction adheres to high standards, achieves high benefits and shortens the construction period, as Liming Heavy Industry is committed to building a high-quality brand of comprehensive service provider for powder grinding systems.

With the accelerated iteration and development of the new energy industry, Liming Heavy Industry will continue to deepen its presence in the lithium resource processing field, refine the technology of powder grinding equipment, and provide efficient and energy-saving powder-making solutions for new energy material processing enterprises, jointly promoting the steady development of the lithium battery industry chain.