Pilbara Minerals confirms pre-auction sale

Pilbara Minerals has accepted a pre-auction offer for a lithium spodumene concentrate cargo at $US1106 ($1680) per dry metric tonne (dmt).

The shipment of 5000dmt was made available to a group of registered Battery Material Exchange (BMX) participants prior to the proposed BMX auction date of March 18.

While Pilbara Minerals received a number of offers, the company accepted the offer of $US1106/dmt on a SC6.0 China equivalent basis.

The shipment has been contracted for the December 2024 quarter, owing to Pilbara Minerals’ existing offtake commitments. This agreement also means that the company’s forecast production volumes for the 2024 calendar year are largely allocated.

“As a result, regular future spot sales via BMX during 2024 are unlikely,” Pilbara Minerals said in an ASX announcement.

“For any future unallocated production, the company will continuously review a variety of sales avenues including offtake contracts, closed tenders, auctions and other commercial opportunities to maximise value creation for our shareholders.”

The sale represents a decline from Pilbara Minerals’ last offtake record in November 2022, reflecting the current downturn of lithium prices.

At the time, Pilbara Minerals’ lithium attracted the equivalent of $US8575 ($13,031)/dmt.

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