(Yicai Global) Oct. 13 -- Shares of Chinese cement producer Jinyuan EP surged after the firm said it will acquire a controlling stake in a lithium processing plant, accelerating its expansion into the battery raw material industry.

Jinyuan’s stock price [SHE:000546] climbed as much as 6.7 percent to CNY11.59 (USD1.80) intraday. The shares are almost 50 percent up this year.

The construction material maker has penned an agreement with two shareholders of Heli Lithium to buy a 51-percent stake in the latter to speed up its business expansion in the field of battery raw materials, the Hangzhou-based buyer said in a statement yesterday. The exact price will be negotiated later.

On Sept. 23, Jinyuan revealed its first lithium salts asset acquisition plan. It was intending to purchase a 51-percent stake in Ali Chenyu Mining for CNY600 million (USD93.1 million).

Heli, which is based in the Xizang Autonomous Region, owns a lithium processing plant with a total investment of CNY560 million in Golmud, northwestern China’s Qinghai province. The plant uses salt lake brine as its raw material. The facility's annual output of various types of battery-grade and high-purity lithium salt products is expected to rise to 20,000 tons while currently, it is 5,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate and 1,000 tons of high-purity lithium carbonate.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi