Yichun Officials: CATL's Jianxiawo Lithium Mine Is Still Under Maintenance Shutdown
Local environmental authorities in Yichun say CATL's Jianxiawo lithium mine is still under maintenance shutdown, pushing back on rumors of a production restart.
- 0.27%–0.28%
- 30 million tons
- Over one year
- June 17, 2026 – June 17, 2029
What Happened
CATL's Jianxiawo lithium mine in Yichun will not restart yet, the Yifeng County Ecology Bureau said. On August 7 the bureau reported that site inspections found the operation still shut for maintenance, with no ore being loaded or crushed on site. Regulators have told the company to speed up its environmental impact assessment, and officials say they will keep watching the site's output and maintenance status. The mine has now been shut for more than a year.
A revised Mineral Resources Law takes effect, classifying lithium as an independent strategic mineral.
The Jianxiawo mine releases its initial public notice for the environmental assessment.
Jiangxi's provincial natural-resources department issues a land-use pre-review plus a site-selection permit for Yichun Times New Energy Mining, a CATL subsidiary, valid through June 17, 2029.
A draft environmental impact report is posted for public comment, entering the statutory public participation phase.
The Yifeng County Ecology Bureau responds to restart rumors, saying the mine is still under maintenance shutdown.
The long shutdown stems from a gap between the permit the mine held and the ore it was really pulling out. The Jianxiawo site was licensed for ceramic clay, yet it had been extracting lepidolite, a lithium-bearing mineral. Because lithium now counts as an independent strategic mineral, the operator must reclassify the mine's primary mineral as lithium and clear outstanding mining-rights transfer fees before it can be allowed to dig again.
- Reclassify the mine's main mineral from ceramic clay to lithium
- Settle unpaid mining-rights transfer fees
- Redo environmental and safety assessments
- Complete public consultation and secure the competent authority's sign-off on the environmental impact report
Under China's classification catalogue governing environmental-impact assessment for construction projects, non-ferrous-metal mining and ore-dressing operations must draw up an environmental impact report, which municipal environmental authorities then have to approve. After public consultation ends, the report has to be refined and formally lodged for approval, and output can restart only once the competent authority signs off. Jianxiawo itself is a low-grade lepidolite deposit, with an average lithium-oxide grade of roughly 0.27% to 0.28% and a planned yearly mining scale of 30 million tons. The June 2026 permit names Yichun Times New Energy Mining (Yichun Times) as the holder, an indirectly held CATL subsidiary, and covers extraction at Zhenkouli in Yifeng County as well as Jianxiawo in Fengxin County. The project is a key plank of CATL's upstream lithium-resource strategy.
Why this matters
The Jianxiawo mine is central to CATL's upstream lithium resource strategy, but it has been idle for over a year because its old permit was for ceramic clay while it actually extracted lepidolite. After lithium was reclassified as an independent strategic mineral in July 2025, the operator must redo environmental and safety assessments and get final EIA approval, so the planned 30-million-ton-per-year project cannot feed CATL's lithium supply until then.
Terms in This Story
- lepidolite
- A lithium-bearing mineral from the mica group, often mined as a source of lithium.
- environmental impact assessment (EIA)
- A process for evaluating the likely environmental effects of a proposed project before it is approved.
- mining rights transfer fees
- Payments required when the rights to extract minerals from a site are reassigned or re-designated.
A brief summary; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.