Tianqi Lithium completes 1,000 t/y battery-grade lithium metal plant in Chongqing

The significance here is less the headline tonnage than the automation claim: Tianqi is positioning lithium metal — the anode input for next-generation solid-state cells — as an industrial, scalable product rather than a specialty batch chemical. That matters for anyone tracking the solid-state supply chain, where anode-grade lithium metal has been a quiet bottleneck. The 1,600-tonne Chongqing footprint also concentrates capacity in one district. Whether the plant reaches nameplate output, and whether battery-grade lithium metal demand justifies the scale, is the open question.