Spodumene is making money in Australia. Refining spodumene to...

Spodumene is making money in Australia. Refining spodumene to LiOH is not.

With respect to ALB refining as opposed to mining they are not covering themselves in glory in WA. Nor are other players. @anatol has mentioned this.

ALB should be close to producing some LiOH at Kemerton WA although I haven't seen any public announcement, nor have I noted any shipments announced etc.

Original commissioning of the Kemerton WA refinery was to be in "2021, in stages". 2 years of delays and counting. It is costing lots more.

LTR won't necessarily be easy to start up, nothing is, but it is a simpler venture than a refinery obviously, and it's all been done in WA before. It would be a cash cow for ALB, possibly even before their refinery is properly up and away, the way that's going. I agree that the Scheme of Arrangement between LTR and ALB is unlikely to succeed - thank you @Dynafish for your mention of ESS shareholders voting Minres scheme down. LTR board have done their numbers and probably know shareholders won't approve the ALB deal.

The others not going well with refining in WA (cost and schedule) are Covalent (WES) who in March announced its Kwinana refinery had blown out to $2.6 billion and hadn't produced on schedule. West Australian 23 Mar 2023.


IGO produced 142 tonnes of battery grade LiOH in 3 months to June 2023 with a target of 24000 tpa. 2.3% of target. West Australian, 31 July 2023.

With any luck we will soon know how to build and operate refineries in WA - -when LTR is ready to take on that challenge!