POSCO Holdings (005490.KS) has brought its lithium business in Argentina onto a firm footing, an achievement the group attributes to the technology-centered leadership of Chairman Chang In-hwa. The group honed its technical capabilities without wavering through setbacks that included the collapse of projects in Bolivia and Chile.
POSCO Group began developing proprietary technology for extracting lithium directly from brine in 2010, viewing lithium not merely as a mineral but as a core strategic resource that would shape the national economy and industrial competitiveness. In 2014, as head of the group's new business office, Chang directed the operation of a pilot plant using brine from Argentina and led the systematic verification and upgrading of a continuous lithium extraction process. As head of the technology investment division in 2017, he pulled together some 130 researchers from the Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) and the group's technical research center into a single team centered on the secondary battery materials office, bringing a demonstration plant into successful operation. That persistent research and hands-on verification became the decisive foundation for completing POSCO's own brine lithium extraction technology in 2020.
The technology gains translated into commercial operations. In 2024, Chang's first year as chairman, the company became the first Korean firm to begin commercial production of lithium from overseas brine. POSCO Holdings plans to secure both stability and profitability through a two-track strategy, running its first plant, which uses the company's own technology, alongside a second plant based on proven commercial technology.
Chang's emphasis on visiting operations has also helped lift morale among employees working far from home. During a February visit last year to the high-altitude salt lake and lithium hydroxide plant in Argentina, Chang urged workers to maximize profitability and improve process efficiency and product quality. "Resource projects are a field that requires a long-term perspective and persistent effort, and POSCO's own DNA can make them succeed," he said. He also asked employees to concentrate the company's capabilities on securing strategic resources overseas, building on its solid relationship of trust with the local government.
Chang is likely to attend the completion ceremony for the second brine lithium plant, tentatively set for October 6, to again recognize the work of employees who built production facilities at an altitude of 4,000 meters, according to people familiar with the plans. He is scheduled to visit Australia, where the company holds an equity stake in a lithium mine, on the occasion of the Korea-Australia Business Council meeting on the 1st and 2nd of next month. Chang, who chairs the Korean side of the council, is expected to propose that the two countries work together to build a model for sustainable and resilient global supply chains.
POSCO Holdings also plans to complete and operate a Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) demonstration plant in Utah in 2027 as it seeks leadership in next-generation technology. DLE allows lithium to be produced economically from salt lakes with low lithium concentrations, and has drawn attention as a potential game changer for the global lithium industry because it offers higher recovery rates and shorter production times than conventional evaporation methods.
