Australia’s Pilbara Minerals said Thursday its spodumene concentrate production more than tripled in the financial year 2021 on the back of improved market conditions and strong operational performance.

The miner produced 281,440 dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate, compared to 90,768 dmt a year earlier. Shipments rose 142% in the same period to 281,440 dmt, from 116,256 dmt, supported by a significant increase in demand in the second half of FY2021, which ended on 30 June 2021.

Thanks to several improvement projects in processing, Pilbara achieved higher feed and utilisation, as well as improved recoveries, leading to a reduction in the average unit cash operation cost to AUD 519/dmt ($389/dmt) cif China. This, in turn, helped the company to increase its cash gross margin from operations and reduce both debt and net loss, Kallanish notes.

Financial results for the year show revenue increased 108.9% y-o-y to AUD 175.82m and net loss attributable to shareholders came down to AUD 51.4m.

“What an incredible turnaround we have seen during the second half of FY2021,” comments managing director Ken Brinsden. “Global demand growth for lithium raw materials has now really kicked-in and it is resulting in substantial increases in the price received for our products.”

The executive notes that production from the processing plant acquired from Altura is “completely uncommitted.” Pilbara plans to sell such capacity on the spot market through its recently launched BMX platform – “an additional sales channel to help realise more of the available margin available between the value of spodumene concentrate and lithium hydroxide in this buoyant market, which will be an outstanding outcome for us and our shareholders,” he adds.

Looking ahead, Pilbara expects production in FY2022 to be around 460,000-510,000 dmt and sales at 440,000-490,000 dmt. The average operating cost for its spodumene concentrate should be around AUD 525-575/dmt cif China, before lowering to AUD 450-500/dmt beyond FY2023.