BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Two auctions for lithium exploration rights in China's southwestern Sichuan province drew heavy bidding interest and concluded at values thousands of times starting prices, according to information by a provincial government body.
An auction for five-year exploration rights to the Jiada Lithium Mine in Maerkang city that started last Thursday received 11,307 bids and concluded at 4.2 billion yuan ($579 million) on Sunday, 1,317 times higher than the starting price of 3.19 million yuan, according to auction data from the Sichuan Public Resources Trading Center.
Inner Mongolia Dazhong Mining said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday its unit won the Jiada auction.
The other auction, for five-year exploration rights to the Lijiagoubei Lithium Mine, received 3,412 bids within three days from Wednesday.
It concluded on Friday at 1.01 billion yuan, versus its starting price at 570,000 yuan, won by Sichuan Energy Investment Holdings, according to the Sichuan Public Resources Trading Center.
Both mines are located at Aba, a Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture in northwestern Sichuan. The region where the mines are located is home to about 1.4 million tonnes of lithium, a mining report by Aba government in January showed.
China is the world's biggest consumer and producer of lithium carbonate, an important metal for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
China, which is also the world's top EV maker, will see lithium demand for EV manufacture grow by an average of 20.4% annually from 2023 to 2032, while its lithium mining output will rise by an average of 6% annually over the same period, according to BMI Research. ($1 = 7.2591 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Andrew Hayley; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
