PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium miner Galaxy Resources produced 14 306 t of lithium concentrate from its Mt Cattlin operation, in Western Australia, during the three months to March, as the company’s operational change to meet softening market demand, kicked off.

Galaxy previously announced plans to cut back on production in 2020, prioritizing the processing of low-grade stockpiled ore and drawing down final product inventory levies.

The company in February restarted operations at Mt Cattlin after a planned summer outage, during which the scheduled installation of the front-end optical ore sorters were completed.

In accordance with the new mine plan, total material mined decreased significantly, from the more than 1.1-million tonnes in the last quarter, to only 72 640 t, while concentrate production decreased from 43 222 t to 14 306 t.

Galaxy on Thursday reported that 32 512 t of lithium concentrate was shipped during the March quarter, up from the 14 778 t shipped in the previous quarter. A further 15 000 t had been sold in the December quarter, but not shipped at the discretion of the customer, and would only leave port in April.

Galaxy told shareholders that the company remained on track to produce between 25 000 t and 30 000 t of lithium concentrate during the second quarter. The company has maintained that forecast production volumes for 2020, along with existing product stockpiles of some 46 000 t, would be sufficient to meet contracted obligations to existing customers during the year.

Additionally, mining and processing operations had the flexibility to rapidly ramp up in response to any market improvement, or as required by customers, the company said.

The miner noted that the full impact of Covid-19 on sales remained uncertain, with the company saying it was monitoring the situation closely.

In response to the pandemic, the company in March suspended operations at its Sal de Vida project, in Argentina, after the Argentinian government issued a nation-wide lockdown.