The Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) share price fell 6.2% to a new two-year low of 7.6 cents today.
This follows the release of the explorer's latest quarterly activities report yesterday.
Let's check it out.
Highlights of 1Q FY24 for Sayona Mining
Over the three months to 30 September:
- 224,420 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of ore mined, down 1% quarter over quarter (qoq)
- 31,486 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of lithium spodumene concentrate produced, up 6% qoq
- 48,211 dmt sold at an average price of $1,985 per dmt
- Unit operating costs of $1,231 per dmt
- Revenue of $96 million
- Cash balance of $233 million, up 10% qoq
Sayona Mining said production at its flagship North American Lithium (NAL) Project fell 1% due to lower equipment availability and the retraining of staff to enhance longer-term efficiencies.
Spodumene concentrate production was in line with targets.
The company commented:
The operations team at NAL continues to focus on improving process plant utilisation, throughput and recovery with initiatives such as the Crushed Ore Dome expected to improve mill utilisation.
Sales were also in line with expectations, with three shipments setting sail in September. The concentrate on board was sold to 25% JV partner Piedmont Lithium Inc (ASX: PLL) under the offtake agreement.
Sayona issues fresh FY24 guidance
Sayona Mining issued new production guidance for NAL in FY24.
Assuming that the NAL process plant reaches steady-state production levels by Q4 FY24, Sayona expects to produce between 140,000 and 160,000 dmt of spodumene concentrate at 5.4% Li2O in FY24.
The company is guiding sales of between 160,000 and 180,000 dmt of spodumene concentrate.
The company said it will continue the ramp-up to steady-state production at NAL during FY24. It will issue unit operating cost guidance once NAL achieves steady-state production.
Sayona Mining share price snapshot
Shares in the lithium and graphite miner have tumbled 60.5% in the year to date. Meantime, the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has lost 2.25% over the same time period.
Sayona remains among the top 10 most shorted ASX shares, with a short interest of 9.2%.
My Fool colleague Sebastian notes that professional traders are betting against ASX lithium shares en masse right now, given their expectations that lithium commodity prices will continue to weaken.
There's also significant volatility in the market today, made worse by the Israel-Gaza conflict this month.
Since the start of August, the ASX All Ords has declined 8.5%.
As Seb points out, ASX growth stocks and small-cap shares are more susceptible to market sell-offs because they're priced on their potential, not on profits.
Sayona Mining will hold its annual general meeting in Brisbane on 30 November.
