Ellison says MinRes will ‘probably’ demerge lithium - AFRWhile...

Ellison says MinRes will ‘probably’ demerge lithium - AFR

While the iron ore industry has turned tough, Mineral Resources is insulated from the downturn by the steady and reliable income of its flagship mining services division and its exposure to the booming lithium market.Mineral Resources owns half of Western Australia’s Mount Marion lithium mine and 40 per cent of the Wodgina mine, which has the capacity to be Australia’s second-largest lithium mine when running at full capacity.Mr Ellison said in future, Mineral Resources wanted to cease exporting lithium in the form of spodumene concentrate – the most common Australian lithium product, which has lithia content of about 6 per cent – and instead sell higher-value, battery-grade products such as lithium hydroxide.

He said Mineral Resources benefitted from having diverse revenue streams across iron ore, lithium and mining services, but a demerger of the lithium business would “probably” happen in the future.“We have set it up in such a way that that’s possible. At the moment it is way too soon,” he said. “If we are going to do that we want to get full value with where we are heading. So, ideally, we want all those mines in full production.