The $400 million plant expansion, once complete, would allow the Chinese-backed SQM to eventually produce as much as 180,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate a year from its Atacama salt flat operations.
Exxaro's coal export volumes surged to a record 8 million tonnes. Revenue jumped 12% to 25.491 billion rand compared with 22.813 billion rand the previous year.
For least seven key rare earths - including praseodymium, used in magnets, and yttrium, used in ceramics - China was a net importer in 2018 for the first time in more than 30 years.
