Altura completes two quarters of commercial Li output

Perth-based lithium producer Altura Mining has completed the first two quarters of commercial production from its Altura project in the Pilgangoora region of Western Australia and continues to attract sales interest from existing offtake partners and potential new customers.

It loaded and shipped 19,500 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of lithium concentrate from Port Hedland to China in the past week, taking total exports since 1 July to 37,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt). A further sale of 10,000dmt is expected to take place in October.

Production guidance of 45,000wmt for the July-September quarter was achieved, including record monthly production of 16,652wmt in September.

"We continue to produce consistent and premium quality lithium concentrate that is being well sought after by offtake partners. We recently completed another marketing visit to China, meeting with potential new offtakers and our existing offtake partners, who reinforced their intention to continue with scheduled purchases of our product for the remainder of 2019 and beyond," managing director James Brown said.

Commenting on the lithium market, which has been under pressure throughout 2019, he said recent product pricing has remained in line with previous quarters, but that October-December prices are yet to be agreed.

"The market remains relatively tight, but the long-term fundamentals have not changed. Internally our focus is firmly on production and cost of this production," Brown said.

The Altura project is ramping up to steady state production of 220,000 t/yr, with an investment decision still to be made on a second stage that will double capacity.