Altura ships largest Li cargo to China

Australian lithium producer Altura Mining this week shipped its largest ever cargo of lithium concentrate to China.

The 17,500t cargo was shipped to Chinese offtake partners from the Western Australia (WA) port of Port Hedland. The shipment's destination is Zhenjiang, near Shanghai.

Altura has now delivered 17 shipments of lithium concentrate to China totalling 142,000t since reaching commercial production at its Altura project in the WA's Pilgangoora region in July last year. The company has offtake commitments for its entire nameplate capacity of 220,000 t/yr.

The high quality of Altura's concentrate, which is low in mica and iron, contains no sulphur and has an optimal moisture content, makes it sought after by battery manufacturers and lithium converters in China. This has insulated it from the recent downturn in lithium demand.

"Market prices for spodumene concentrate have been subdued in recent months," said Altura's managing director James Brown said. "However, the long-term demand outlook remains robust. A number of producers have recently announced curtailments of production capacity or reductions in output, which has withdrawn significant amounts of concentrate from the market. Any excess supply of lithium concentrate is therefore likely to be absorbed relatively quickly, enabling prices to strengthen in due course."

By Angus Macmillan

source: Argus Media