Core Lithium has suspended mining at its Finniss project near Darwin in light of “weak market conditions”, with up to half of the 300 jobs at the site to be lost.
In late December, the company announced a review of its operations near Darwin and suspended early works on its proposed second mine BP33, following an 80 per cent drop in the price of spodumene concentrate (high-purity lithium ore) in 2023.
The product is a vital component in lithium-ion batteries, including those found in electric vehicles.
On Friday morning, Core Lithium released an ASX statement saying it had now temporarily suspended mining operations at its Grants open pit at Finniss, though it would continue to process its stockpiles of lithium.
The company said it had about 280,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled, which would allow its processing plant to continue operating until mid-2024 without any further mining.
The Core statement said the open pit would be maintained “to allow an orderly ramp up when market conditions improve”.
Core chief executive Gareth Manderson told the ABC’s Country Hour that just over 300 people currently worked onsite, including Core Lithium employees and contractors.
Mr Manderson said the job losses were “not something I take lightly at all”.
“In terms of getting the operation up and running and running well..they’ve done a very good job in that space,” he said.
“This decision has no bearing whatsoever on the performance onsite.”
Mr Manderson said the pause in operations would be done in a way that would allow them to recommence quickly when market conditions improved, but said it was difficult to predict the price of spodumene concentrate.
“No one predicted an 80 plus per cent reduction in 12 months,” Mr Manderson said.
The Finniss mine was opened in early October 2022 with what was expected to be a 12-year life span.
At the time of its opening, Core had already entered into an arrangement to supply electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.
However, the company later announced the deal would not be going ahead, but said it remained “well-positioned” to take advantage of strong global demand for lithium.
(ABC)
