SALTA, Argentina, July 3 (Reuters) - France's Eramet

aims to start production at its new Centenario lithium

plant in Argentina in November and ramp up to 24,000 metric tons

of battery grade lithium by mid-2025, it said on Wednesday after

starting the final test phase at the plant.

The $870 million plant, a joint venture with Chinese nickel

and steel giant Tsingshan, is likely to be among the first

worldwide to use an innovative processing system called direct

lithium extraction, or DLE, at commercial scale.

That makes it a key test for the promising technology that

helps speed up lithium production even as governments and car

makers race to secure supply of the ultra-light metal needed for

many of the batteries that power electric vehicles.

Argentina, which sits in South America's so-called "lithium

triangle", is the world's fourth largest producer of the metal

and is looking to rev up output with a slate of new projects set

to come online later this year.

Eramet's Centenario project, in northern Salta province, is

set to be the first to start production, with the company now

testing the equipment and production processes in a key phase

known as commissioning.

Eramet, which owns 50.1% of the project, is requesting

permits for a second plant with a capacity of 30,000 tons, with

construction likely to begin next year. It plans to eventually

build a third plant of the same size.

The company is hopeful that a recent new economic reform

bill passed in Argentina's Senate that includes plans to

incentivize large investments could help boost those expansion

plans.

"These are obviously the kind of incentives that are

important for us when we make a decision to invest in new

phases," Simon Henochsberg, Eramet's vice president of strategy,

told Reuters in an interview.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)