Pilbara Minerals lifts output, but price falls weigh
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The news: Lithium producer Pilbara Minerals lifted production and sales in the March quarter, but revenue dropped amid lower prices.
The numbers: March quarter spodumene concentrate production was up 2% from three months earlier to 179,000 tonnes, while sales were up 3% to 165,100 tonnes.
However, the average realised price dropped 28% to USD804 ($1,252.35) a tonne, dragging revenue down 27% to $192 million.
Pilbara's share price last closed at $3.92 and over the past 12 months has fallen 4.16%.
The context: The company said performance in the first half of the quarter was impacted by weather events and ore supply challenges but these have now been resolved.
It set a new monthly production record in March with over 80,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) produced at a unit operating cost of less than USD625/dmt. This performance was underpinned by the continuous operation of its P680 crushing and ore sorting facility at its expanded production capacity with no shutdowns, higher ore lithium head grade and higher lithium recoveries, it said.
Pilbara’s flagship Pilgangoora mine in Western Australia is the world’s largest, independent hard-rock lithium operation.
The source: ASX announcement
