The Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) share price is rising on Wednesday.
In morning trade, the lithium developer's shares are up 1% to $3.03.
Why is the Liontown share price rising?
This morning, Liontown revealed that it is business as usual over at the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project despite the recent takeover approach from Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB).
According to the release, the company has appointed Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX: MND) for the vertically integrated wet plant Structural, Mechanical, Piping (SMP) and Electrical and Instrumentation (E&I) contract.
The value of the contract is approximately A$100 million over nine months and Monadelphous has already begun mobilising to site.
Management commentary
Management notes that this contract award signifies the final major construction contract for Kathleen Valley. It also remains confident that it is on schedule to achieve first production in mid-2024.
Liontown's managing director and CEO, Tony Ottaviano, commented:
I'm pleased to announce that we have awarded the SMP and E&I contract to Tier-1 contractor Monadelphous. Valued at approximately A$100 million this marks the final major construction contract to be awarded for Kathleen Valley. The vertically integrated approach of combining the SMP and E&I packages enables Monadelphous to efficiently deliver both programs of work to a very high standard and played a large part in its successful tender.
Monadelphous has a large resources pool, experience in the hard rock lithium sector, and a proven track record of delivering large-scale multi-disciplinary projects in Western Australia, which came through strongly throughout the evaluation process. Their demonstrated skills, capability and professionalism reflects Liontown's expectations of a partnership. There is a clear line of sight to first spodumene production mid-next year.
There were no comments on the recent purchase of Liontown shares by Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting.
