Pilbara Minerals CEO Dale Henderson suggests revival of mid-stream lithium plant build

Dale Henderson has dangled the prospect of Pilbara Minerals picking up the tools to finish a lithium pilot plant — if the government or someone else reaches into their pockets. The Pilbara Minerals chief executive on Tuesday said work could restart at the mid-stream demonstration processing plant project being built alongside ASX-listed Calix, even if lithium prices stay low. The plant, located at Pilbara’s flagship Pilgangoora operation, was about 60 per cent complete when work was halted in late October to save cash amid the dire lithium market. The development is part of Pilbara’s grand plans to move up the lithium supply chain and produce higher-value products, in addition to the spodumene concentrate it currently sells. “We’d love to see that (mid-stream demonstration plant) come back online and deliver that, however, at this point in the cycle, the name of the game is preserving cash, reducing costs,” Mr Henderson told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting at UWA. “So for that reason, we thought, let’s pause that. “And we did that decision with agreement with Calix, with the view that we bring it back online when either the market improves, or we get additional support from the government, or another funding source.” The plant is slated to cost $104.9 million and the Federal Government has already chipped in $20m. Pilbara in October also announced it would put one of its two upstream processing plants at Pilgangoora into care and maintenance as part of the cost cutting drive, wiping out approximately 50 jobs. Mr Henderson was grilled by shareholders on the miner’s full exposure to hard rock lithium, with giants like Rio Tinto increasingly favouring lithium brine projects. Rio chief Jakub Stausholm has said the brine extraction process is becoming more efficient and environmentally-friendly, making it the “solution the lithium world needs”. But the PLS boss believes there will be a place for “high-quality” hard rock projects, and that there are both brine and hard rock mines that are “rubbish” and will not survive the low price environment. He said there are number of initiatives the company is progressing to reduce its cost base, including a new floatation regime to improve grade recoveries.