The third quarter was transformational for dual-listed Piedmont Lithium, which made its first customer shipments under its offtake agreement with North American Lithium (NAL), and as a result, became a revenue-generating lithium company.
Piedmont recorded adjusted net income of $17-million and adjusted net earnings a share of $0.88 during the three months to September 30.
“NAL is the largest operating lithium mine in North America and production is ramping up well,” said Piedmont president and CEO Keith Phillips.
During the third quarter, Piedmont bought 29 011 dry metric tonnes (dmt) from NAL, in Quebec, Canada.
While pleased with Piedmont’s operational and financial performance, Phillips said the company’s results were materially impacted by the 45% fall in spot lithium prices during the quarter.
While most offtake tonnages would eventually be sold under long-term contracts, the initial shipments were being made on the spot market. The benchmark spodumene concentrate price fell from more than $3 500/dmt at the start of the quarter, to about $1 900/dmt, directly impacting on the firm’s quarterly results.
Piedmont will have two shipments in the fourth quarter, bringing its total shipments for 2023 to 56 500 dmt of lithium concentrate.
Despite the drop in spot prices, Phillips stressed that electric vehicle (EV) demand remained strong globally and that he expected the US EV market to grow significantly on the back of the stimulus provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We believe the combination of growth in EV sales and total GWh deployed will drive continued lithium demand growth.”
In October, Sayona Mining provided a forecast for the one-year period July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, projecting production of 140 000 dmt to 160 000 dmt and shipments of 160 000dmt to 180 000 dmt.