PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australian share price of lithium miner Orocobre climbed nearly 20c a share on Tuesday as the company announced a significant lithium price upgrade.
The ASX- and TSX-listed miner said on Tuesday that sales during the March quarter had reached 3 032 t at a price of $5 853/t free-on-board (FOB), with pricing up more than 50% compared with the December 2020 quarter.
Lithium prices received by Orocobre were now up nearly 90% in the last six months, the miner said.
Prices for the June quarter are expected to reach some $7 400/t FOB, subject to shipping schedules, marking the highest pricing received since June 2019. This higher price is also expected to result in pricing during the second half of 2021 being some 20% higher than prior guidance.
Furthermore, Orocobre told shareholders that forward sales enquiries for all grades of lithium carbonate from the Olaroz project remained strong, and all budgeted production for 2022 had been fully sold, and subject to variable pricing that it would benefit from the expected continued improvement in market conditions.
Additional production will become available with the Olaroz Stage 2 project starting production in the second half of 2022.
The Stage 2 expansion will increase total expected lithium carbonate production to around 42 500 t/y, with part of this industrial grade lithium carbonate to be used as feedstock for the proposed Naraha lithium hydroxide plant.