China's first Lithium-New Energy High-tech Industry Base is to be established in Yichun City in the eastern Jiangxi Province.

The base would cover 20 square km and its output value is expected to reach 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) by 2020, said Luo Zhiyong, director of the Lithium-New Energy Development Bureau in Yichun.

The area is designed to be a economic service zone for manufacturing and recycling of lithium batteries and research, Luo said.

The base had attracted 26 projects and almost 30.6 billion yuan of investment since January, he said.

An industrial chain is expected to be built and the zone is expected to become a new energy automobile manufacturing base, he said.

Yichun has the world's largest lithium mine with a proved capacity of 1.1 million tonnes, accounting for 31 percent of China's total and 12 percent of the world's reserves.

(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2010)