(Yicai Global) March 18 -- Shares in Sinomine Resource Group surged by as much as 10 percent today after the Chinese mining services provider said its net profit in the first two months of the year has soared more than 12 times from the same period last year to nearly that of the whole of last year due to a big hike in the pricing of lithium salts and newly unleased production capacity.

Sinomine’s share price [SHE:002738] was trading up 6.63 percent at CNY98.98 (USD15.60) as of 2 p.m. China time today. Earlier in the day it had hit CNY102.

Sinomine raked in net profit of CNY486 million (USD76.4 million) in the two months ended Feb. 28, the Beijing-based firm said today. Revenue was up more than five-fold year-on-year to CNY1.1 billion (USD177.3 million).

In January Sinomine had predicted net profit for the year 2021 to jump more than three-fold from the year before to as much as CNY560 million (USD88.1 million).

Sinomine’s production capacity of lithium compounds is set to increase six-fold this year from last year to 30,000 tons. And by next year, another lithium salt project will come into operation with an annual output of 35,000 tons, hiking its total capacity to 65,000 tons a year, online news outlet The Paper reported.

Founded in 1999, Sinomine is not only the world’s largest producer and supplier of caesium and rubidium, it is also a leading supplier of battery-grade lithium fluoride in China as well as the one and only producer of caesium formate worldwide.

The company develops light rare metal resources such as lithium, caesium and rubidium, provides technical services for the exploration of solid minerals as well as the development of mining rights, according to the firm’s website.