The Western Australian Government has approved development of Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley Lithium Project.
The Mining Proposal approval, together with other key permits which have already been received, represents the final primary approvals required for the commencement of major site works at Kathleen Valley, located 680km northeast of Perth and 60km north of Leinster.
Liontown Managing Director and CEO, Tony Ottaviano, said the approval constituted a major milestone for the ambitious project.
“The receipt of approval for our Mining Proposal along with the Works Approval represents another major milestone for the Kathleen Valley Project. With all key enabling permits now in place, our development team can move ahead at full pace to begin major site construction activities,” Mr Ottaviano said.
“This is a very exciting time for everyone involved with the Company, and shareholders can look forward to steadily increasing news-flow in the weeks and months ahead as we move into the full-scale commercial development phase.
The initial 2.5Mtpa project will deliver 500ktpa of SC6.0 spodumene concentrate to global markets, with a planned expansion to 4Mtpa/700ktpa of spodumene concentrate within six years.
This will position Liontown to become a leading global lithium producer, delivering spodumene concentrate which is a critical input to the rapidly growing lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle industry worldwide.
The Kathleen Valley project is underpinned by a group of Tier 1 offtake customers including LG Energy Solution, Tesla and Ford.
Construction of the mine and processing plant will now move into execution phase in line with the Company’s development schedule, following the Final Investment Decision (FID) announced in June 2022.
The ramp-up of major site works will leverage off strong progress achieved with early works to date, with 68 rooms for the Accommodation Village already delivered to site.
Two-thirds of construction tenders for Kathleen Valley have now been issued and are being progressively awarded, with contracts for all key long-lead items already executed and manufacturing commenced, and a Letter of Award (LOA) issued to commence development of the 95MW Hybrid Power Station in partnership with Zenith Energy.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the WA Government, in particular the teams at DMIRS and DWERS, for working cooperatively with us to progress the process to enable construction of this world-class project on schedule,” Mr Ottaviano said.
“The ongoing engagement and support of the Tjiwarl has been pivotal through these processes. We look forward to delivering a world-class project to world-class standards and creating significant value for all our key stakeholders.”
