Liontown Resources burns through $230m but Tony Ottaviano has no plans for care and maintenance

Tony Ottaviano has ruled out putting Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley lithium mine on care and maintenance for at least six months. Rumours have been swirling that Australia’s last new lithium mine for the forseeable future will soon be shuttered amid plummeting lithium prices. But Liontown’s chief, Mr Ottaviano, was definitive in his answer when asked by The West Australian on Wednesday if he could guarantee Kathleen Valley would not be mothballed for at least the next six months. “Yep,” he said. “If prices were to fall to something ridiculous like $US300/t things of course would change but at that point everyone else will be in the same boat (of going into care and maintenance).” He said market supply pressures were easing — pointing to Arcadium Lithium winding down Mt Cattlin, a major Zimbabwean lithium mine ceasing production earlier this month, and Pilbara Minerals’ decision on Wednesday to cut output from Pilgangoora. Liontown saw cash outflows of approximately $230 million during the September quarter — about $30m more than analysts expected — as low lithium prices and continued investment in getting the Kathleen Valley mine near Leinster running at full pelt drained the kitty. By the end of September, the company had $263m left in the bank, but is yet to count the revenue from its first batch of sales. Shares were down 5.1 per cent in afternoon trade to 84¢ each. Liontown told investors it will continue to “optimise its mine plan . . . in response to the current low pricing environment” and provide an update on this by the end of the year. A review of the mine plan, along with updated guidance on production and costs, was originally expected to be released by the end of this month. “We’ve designed the orebody when the market was very strong. The world has changed,” Mr Ottaviano said. “We’ve got some strong options in that regard . . . this won’t include care and maintenance, just to be clear.” Mr Ottaviano indicated that as part of the mine plan optimisation Liontown may extract higher grade ore from Kathleen Valley first to improve its chances of near-to-medium-term profitability. Earlier this month, it was revealed Liontown axed about a third of its white-collar staff, equating to some 30 jobs. Just days prior to that job cull revelation the company waved goodbye to its maiden shipment of spodumene concentrate produced at Kathleen Valley. The vessel contained 11,855 wet metric tonnes of the battery ingredient and departed from Geraldton Port.