Australia's MinRes shuts Bald Hill on lithium slump

Market: Battery materials, Metals
13/11/24

Australian lithium and iron ore producer Mineral Resources (MinRes) is placing its Bald Hill site into care and maintenance, with operations set to shut down over the coming month given the prolonged lithium market downturn, said the firm on 13 November.

The site's mining and mobile maintenance operations will cease from 13 November, followed by its spodumene concentrate plant in early December, said Minres, adding that the move will "preserve" cash and the site's orebody. The producer was recently rocked by a tax scandal that will see its founder Chris Ellison, who advocated for a focus on spodumene rather than downstream processing, departing the firm. Bald Hill's workforce of approximately 300 employees will be prioritised for redeployment, with layoffs to occur if the redeployment proves unsuccessful.

MinRes earlier issued a July 2024-June 2025 fiscal year lithium shipment guidance of 120,000-145,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of spodumene concentrate on a 6pc grade basis for the Bald Hill site. The site is now expected to ship just 60,000dmt given the transition. The firm finalised the site's acquisition in November 2023 and it was the newest addition to its spodumene producing mines.

A ramp-up back to full operation is expected to take four to six weeks when lithium prices recover to a level that "incentivises" a restart, said the firm.

Argus-assessed prices for 6pc grade lithium concentrate (spodumene) rose to $780-830/t cif China on 12 November from $740-790/t cif China a week earlier, in response to rising prices for lithium salts, coupled with spodumene output adjustments at major producers. But prices have crashed from an all-time high of $5,875/t cif China at the end of November 2022 and remain far below around $1,925/t cif China a year earlier.

Multiple lithium firms operating in Australia have started to buckle under the drawn-out market slump this year, with projects constantly being pushed back or placed into care and maintenance. Some of the operations that have been placed into care and maintenance include Core Lithium's Finniss site, Pilbara's Ngungaju plant and US lithium producer Albemarle's Kemerton lithium conversion facility train 2. Albemarle has also announced cost-cutting measures and halted the construction of train 3.

Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources this month has cut the production target at its Kathleen Valley project, one of the newest lithium mines in the country, as it wrestles with the downturn.

By Joseph Ho

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