The facility has a series of health and safety protocols in place that were required by the authorities, enabling it to resume producing lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in excess of 99.5% purity.

The company expects lithium chemical demand to "rise strongly" in coming years and expects this to have a positive effect for LCE product developers.

"With the latest multi-billion dollar subsidies and investments in several European countries to support the EV (electric vehcles) industry, in addition to growth in Asia, I feel we will be strong beneficiaries given the project milestones completed to date and our stage of development and progress achieved, as we continue toward full development of our Rincon lithium project," said managing director Jerko Zuvela.

In a June announcement, Argosy said samples analysed by Mitsubishi Corporation RTM Japan achieved results of up to 99.88% lithium carbonate content with all sample results being within the product specification requirements for battery cathode manufacturing applications.

A month earlier, Argosy had announced the first shipment of five tonnes of high-quality (99.5% purity or greater) lithium carbonate product from Rincon.