- Pilbara Minerals (PLS) trades in the green after kicking off the commissioning of the course production circuit at its Ngungaju Plant in WA
- This is the first step of a staged recommissioning of the operation, which Pilbara Minerals announced in June this year
- Managing Director and CEO Ken Brinsden says this first step has been delivered ahead of the timing guidance the company gave to the market
- Following this recommissioning work, Pilbara Minerals expects to kick off production from Ngungaju in the March quarter of 2022
- Shares in Pilbara Minerals are up 3.48 per cent and trading at $1.94 each at 11:56 am AEDT
Lithium miner Pilbara Minerals (PLS) is trading in the green after kicking off the commissioning of the course production circuit at its Ngungaju Plant in WA.
The company announced its plans in June to restart production at the Ngungaju Plant, which is part of the company’s flagship Pilgangoora Project.
Today, less than four months after deciding to restart Ngungaju, Pilbara Minerals has fed the first ore into the plant in support of near-term production concentrate.
This is the first step of a staged recommissioning of the operation, according to PLS. It follows a “successful” construction and maintenance acceleration program at the plant.
Pilbara Minerals Managing Director and CEO Ken Brinsden said the start of the Ngungaju commissioning work marked a “significant and exciting milestone” for the Pilgangoora project.
“This is a great result, which marks the culmination of the incredible hard work which our entire team has put in to transform the amazing resource at Pilgangoora into a globally significant lithium raw materials production centre,” Mr Brinsden said.
“This first step of the Ngungaju restart has been delivered in less than four months since the board approved a staged restart of Ngungaju, ahead of the guidance we gave to the market.”
He added that the turnaround time for the early recommissioning work was particularly impressive given the “challenging environment” in the Western Australian resources sector.
PLS said following this recommissioning work, it expected to kick off production from Ngungaju during the March quarter of 2022.
From here, PLS plans to ramp up production capacity at the Ngungaju Plant until mid-2022, by which stage the plant is expected to be producing between 180,000 and 200,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of concentrate annually.
Combined with some improvement works being completed at the Pilgan Plant, the added production from Ngungaju is expected to see the annual production capacity of the wider Pilgangoora Project bolstered to between 560,000 and 580,000 dmt.
“With market conditions remaining extremely buoyant and the spodumene concentrate market continuing to show signs of being extremely short of supply, the Ngungaju Plant is expected to be capable of delivering uncommitted tonnes into the emerging spot market including through our Battery Metals Exchange (BMX) platform,” Mr Brinsden said.
Following today’s Ngungaju news, Pilbara Minerals reaffirmed its production guidance for the 2022 financial year, expecting to produce between 460,000 dmt and 510,000 dmt of concentrate over the year.
Shares in Pilbara Minerals are up 3.48 per cent and trading at $1.94 each at 11:56 am AEDT.