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Liontown secures key offtake agreement

Liontown Resources has locked in a short-term offtake agreement with Beijing Sinomine International Trade Co, a company that supplies raw materials of minerals such as lithium.

The agreement will see Liontown supply Beijing Sinomine International Trade Co with up to 100,000 dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate from its Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia over a 10-month period set to commence by September 30.

“Securing a near-term offtake with an established lithium refiner to sell initial volumes over the ramp-up period, de-risks sales during our ramp-up of the plant towards nameplate capacity,” Liontown managing director and chief executive officer Tony Ottaviano said.

“This complements our existing long-term offtakes, which we will progressively bring into effect over the next 12 months as we increase production towards nameplate to support our offtake commitments.”

The agreement with Beijing Sinomine International Trade Co joins Liontown’s portfolio of long-term offtake contracts with Tesla, Ford and LG Energy Solution, the latter of which recently committed $US250 million towards Kathleen Valley.

By the end of the March 2024 quarter, construction at Kathleen Valley had hit the 85 per cent completion mark.

Located about 60km north of Leinster and 680km north-east of Perth, Kathleen Valley holds a mineral resource estimate of 156 million tonnes, with over 80 per cent of the mineral resource classified as measured or indicated.

Backed by a 23-year mine life and an expected production rate of 500,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per annum, Kathleen Valley is well on its way to achieve first production by mid-2024.

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