The Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR) share price failed to take off today despite the company's positive announcement.
At market close on Monday, the lithium developer's shares finished down 0.27% to $1.85.
What did Liontown update the ASX with?
It appears Liontown shares are taking a breather after zooming upwards 9.14% in the past week.
According to its release, Liontown advised that it has successfully completed a large-scale spodumene concentrate production program. Bulk samples were collected from the wholly-owned Kathleen Valley Project in Western Australia's north-eastern Goldfields region.
The pilot program produced a large volume of 6% spodumene (Li2O) concentrate and a quantity of tantalum concentrate. Around 5 tonne of mineralised pegmatite from the company's core inventory had been fed into the grinding mill.
The miner expects the successful operation to support both off-take negotiations and the planned lithium hydroxide downstream pre-feasibility study. Liontown is seeking to develop a leading second-generation lithium-tantalum mining and processing operation at Kathleen Valley.
Liontown managing director and CEO Tony Ottaviano commented:
The bulk sample testwork program is a key component of our thorough and exhaustive metallurgical testwork program for Kathleen Valley which continues to demonstrate Liontown's commitment to evidence-based design.
The final product from the program will enable Liontown's potential customers to test and pre-qualify our high-quality spodumene for operating in their refinery or toll-treaters. The product will also be used to support future detailed design engineering of our both our tantalum circuit and downstream lithium hydroxide refinery.
About the Liontown share price
It has been an outstanding 12 months for the Liontown share price, rising by more than 672% for the period. When looking at year to date, its gains are just as impressive, up around 513%.
The company's shares reached an all-time high of $1.995 earlier this month, before settling back.
Based on today's price, Liontown commands a market capitalisation of roughly $3.54 billion, with approximately 1.91 billion shares on issue.
