Pilbara Minerals hits record output

Lithium miner Pilbara Minerals has achieved record quarterly production from its Pilgangoora operations in Western Australia while signalling an uptick in demand for spodumene concentrate.

The Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum mine, located 120 kilometres from Port Hedland, produced 77,820 dry metric tonnes of spodumene (lithium) concentrate in the first three months of this year, up from 63,712dmt in the December quarter, along with 36,481 pounds of tantalite (up from 28,456lb).

Pilbara Minerals also shipped more spodumene this quarter (71,229dmt) but said the final March shipment was only partially completed due to port delays.

The company has said it expects to ship more spodumene in the current quarter - between 75,000dmt and 90,000dmt - given the increase in electric vehicle manufacturing globally.

Also on Wednesday, PIlbara Minerals flagged a supply shortage of both spodumene concentrate and lithium carbonate, as enquiries from existing and new customers rise.

Meanwhile, site works recently commenced on the first set of improvements (stage one) to the Pilgangoora plant, which is expected to increase spodumene concentrate production to about 380,000dmt per annum.

Pilgangoora currently produces at a rate of about 330,000dmtpa.

Pilbara Minerals has allocated about $22 million to the improvements, with stage one works being undertaken by a local joint venture between WestStar Industrial’s SIMPEC subsidiary and Indigenous-owned IronMerge under a $15 million contract.

Recently, Pilbara Minerals said it would use a $US15 million prepayment from offtake partner Yibin Tianyi to advance the upgrades.

The company also plans to restart Altura Mining’s adjoining operations of the same name (Pilgangoora), which it acquired from the lithium miner’s administrators in January for $US175 million.

Shares in Pilbara Minerals closed down 4 per cent to trade at $1.25.