Liontown auctions lithium ore eyeing Kathleen Valley dream
Liontown Resources will start shipping unprocessed lithium ore to bring cash in sooner as it sticks to its timeline and $895 million budget for finishing the Kathleen Valley mine in West Australia.
The company is looking for a buyer for up to 300,000 tonnes of 1 per cent-grade ore before it starts producing refined spodumene concentrate around the middle of next year. Liontown has not disclosed what price it expects to get for the raw ore, but claims there is strong demand for a product it can ship at very low cost, known as direct shipping ore.
Liontown boss Tony Ottaviano at the Financial Review Mining Summit in May, interviewed by Peter Ker. Trevor Collens
Liontown has already locked away offtake contracts with LG Energy Solution, Tesla and Ford for about 90 per cent of the 500,000 tonnes a year of 6 per cent spodumene concentrate Kathleen Valley is slated to produce.
Indeed, New York-listed Albemarle, whose $5.5 billion Liontown takeover bid was rejected in March, said on Wednesday that it expects demand for lithium products to improve over the next few months.
Albemarle raised its profit forecast on the back of strong June quarter earnings that saw its share price jump 4.5 per cent to $US212 in New York.
“We remain confident in the long-term outlook for our businesses,” Albemarle chief executive Kent Masters said. This week he paid $C109 million ($123 million) for a 6.4 per cent stake in another ASX-listed lithium explorer, Patriot Battery Metals.
Exports of direct shipping ore from Australia are rare lately, but Core Lithium made a one-off shipment of 1.4 per cent-grade ore from Darwin in the December quarter that fetched $US951 ($1455) a tonne after being sold via tender.
Liontown has not ruled out continuing
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