COMPANY PROFILE
KATHLEEN VALLEY, WA, HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE 500,000 TONNES PER ANNUM OF SPODUMENE.
LITHIUM’S NEXT ROARING SUCCESS STORY WITH THE TIER 1 POTENTIAL OF ITS KATHLEEN VALLEY PROJECT, LIONTOWN RESOURCES IS SETTING ITSELF UP TO BE A BIG LITHIUM PLAYER.
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he rise of Liontown Resources has been one of honesty, studiousness and discipline. The emerging Australian lithium company has cultivated its business profile and assets patiently and observantly, understanding no success is gained from jumping the gun. At the beginning of September 2020, Liontown’s share price was hovering around the $0.10 mark. A year later, the company clocked $1. Liontown has steadily appreciated since then, as its flagship Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia has grown sturdier by the day. At the time of writing, Liontown shares were trading at $1.44 and the company had a market capitalisation of $3.15 billion. The Liontown fortune has been created despite receiving zero revenue from Kathleen Valley. While the lithium revival has assisted the company’s appeal, there’s more to the story.
“Once we hit the downturn in lithium, under the leadership of (Liontown chair) Tim Goyder the company decided they knew they had something significant, but the time was not right for the company to go out with another lithium project,” Liontown managing director and chief executive officer Tony Ottaviano told Australian Mining. “So they decided to bunker down and work on further definition, further test work, further analysis and study to make sure that when the market did turn they were in the right position to be able to take the company forward quite quickly.” Lithium prices plummeted in 2019 following an overcompensation in the market. There was an oversupply of lithium as producers increased their output, yet there wasn’t the same demand many had forecasted. Liontown acquired Kathleen Valley from Ramelius Resources in August 2016. Years of drilling ensued and as the downturn hit, Liontown cranked up its exploration program, AUSTRALIANMINING
LIONTOWN MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO TONY OTTAVIANO (LEFT) AND CHAIR TIM GOYDER (RIGHT).
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APRIL 2022
