Battery Metals: Lithium producers look to get up off the canvas...

Battery Metals: Lithium producers look to get up off the canvas
Mining

8 hours ago | Reuben Adams

The performance of the bigger miners give us insight into the strength of the wider market – and listed small caps can thrive or die on market sentiment.

Good news or bad news; almost everything trickles downhill.

From falling prices and delayed shipments, the news coming from Australia’s hard rock lithium producers hasn’t been encouraging.

But yesterday, two pretty positive things happened which shows that the short-term outlook may not be that bad.

First, Altura Mining (ASX:AJM) inked a new five-year, 35,000t per annum deal to supply Chinese lithium materials producer Shandong Ruifu.

Then Pilbara Minerals (ASXLS) announced that, based on conversations with its offtake partners, production and sales would return to full capacity for the December 2019 quarter.

And a new six-year, 20,000t per annum offtake was signed with China’s Great Wall Motor company, with the first shipment expected in August 2019.

“Great Wall has been pushing hard to expand its presence in the lithium-ion supply chain,” Pilbara Minerals says.

“This has culminated in it requesting that Pilbara Minerals make offtake available earlier and at greater volume than anticipated by prior agreements.

“Pilbara Minerals has and will continue to make sales to additional customers in China, where the company looks to expand its relationships throughout the lithium-ion supply chain.”

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