The IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) share price is on the move on Monday morning.
At the time of writing, the battery materials miner's shares are up 2% to $15.83.
Why is the IGO share price pushing higher?
Investors have been driving the IGO share price higher today after responding positively to the company's quarterly update.
For the three months ended 30 September, IGO reported a 54% increase in underlying EBITDA to a record $398 million and a mammoth 136% jump in net profit after tax to $253 million.
This result was underpinned by record quarterly spodumene production at Greenbushes and record sales revenue from its nickel business following the contribution from Forrestania.
The lithium business was the standout performer. Greenbushes spodumene production came in at 361kt, up 7% quarter on quarter, supporting sales of 338kt and sales revenue of $1,840 million. The latter was more than double what was recorded during the fourth quarter. This was achieved with unit costs of $253 per tonne, down $1 per tonne quarter on quarter.
Looking ahead, full year production and cash cost guidance has been maintained for both the nickel and lithium businesses.
This means nickel production of 34,500 to 39,500 tonnes at $4.10 to $4.70 per pound and lithium production of 1,350kt to 1,450kt with cash costs of $225 to $275 per tonne.
Management commentary
Matt Dusci, IGO's acting CEO following the tragic passing of Peter Bradford recently, commented:
We at IGO are determined to deliver on Peter's aspiration – to make a difference and make the planet better for future generations. Despite our loss, we are proud to have delivered another strong result this Quarter. Group EBITDA of $398M represents a quarterly record for IGO, thanks to strong operational performance from both our lithium and nickel businesses.
Stronger production and higher spodumene prices drove outstanding earnings within the TLEA joint venture and led to IGO receiving its second quarterly dividend of $106M. Within our nickel business, Nova and Forrestania performed to plan, and we are also pleased to announce our Cosmos revised project plan, which lays the roadmap for the successful delivery of this project over the coming year.
