Galaxy benefits from higher lithium prices

Australia-based lithium producer Galaxy Resources increased the realised price of lithium concentrate from its Mount Cattlin mine in Western Australia to $940/dry metric tonne (dmt) in the six months to 30 June, 11pc higher than in the previous six months.

This enabled it to increase its cash margin to $488/dmt sold, 140pc up on the first half of 2017. Lithium concentrate output rose by 62pc to 91,800t in this year's first half, which led to sales of 90,011t through six export shipments to China.

Output capacity is set to increase to 220,000-240,000 t/yr from this year's fourth quarter following the implementation of a yield optimisation project that includes secondary float recrushing, a fines circuit and optical sorting.

New exploration drilling is planned in the Mount Cattlin area over the next 12 months as part of a programme to increase mineral resources.

Galaxy earlier this week the company executed a $280mn sales agreement with South Korean steel producer Posco for tenements north of its Sal de Vida lithium brine project in Argentina. These funds will be used to develop Sal de Vida. It is also developing the James Bay hard rock lithium project in Quebec, Canada.

Galaxy reported a profit of $11.5mn for the first half of 2018, up from $5mn a year earlier.