The Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) share price is in the red on Wednesday.
In early trade, the lithium miner's shares are down over 6% to 83 cents.
This has been driven by the release of the company's first quarterly update since commencing production at the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project.
Liontown share price sinks on update
Firstly, it is worth noting that Liontown's production at Kathleen Valley started in late July.
As a result, this update is not a true reflection of future quarters. Particularly given that operations continue to ramp up.
With that in mind, let's dig deeper into what Liontown achieved during the three months.
According to the release, its production progressed to plan and volumes totalled over 28,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of spodumene concentrate in the eight weeks since commencement of first production with an average concentrate grade of 5.2% Li2O.
From this, a maiden shipment comprising 10,831 dmt of spodumene concentrate with grading of 5.33% Li2O departed the Port of Geraldton on 27 September bound for an existing offtake customer. Revenue from this shipment was received following the end of the quarter.
Management also revealed that a spot sales strategy for uncontracted spodumene concentrate has been initiated. It achieved a reference price of US$802 per dmt SC6 for a shipment in the current quarter. This represents a premium to the spot price at the time of execution.
Liontown ended the period with a cash balance of $263.1 million.
'Outstanding progress'
The market may not be happy with the update but Liontown's managing director and CEO, Tony Ottaviano, certainly was. He said:
Outstanding progress was made at Kathleen Valley during the September 2024 quarter. The ramp-up of operations is proceeding on schedule, with certain areas surpassing initial expectations. Major milestones achieved this quarter included our first sale of spodumene concentrate, cementing Liontown's status as the world's newest major lithium producer. Subsequent to quarter's end, we also received payment for the first product shipment, which brought a tremendous sense of satisfaction to the Liontown team.
Our quarterly results reflect strong performance in areas within our control, even as we adapt to the challenges presented by the low-price lithium environment. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of Liontown's thorough test work, engineering, process flow design, and management of Tier 1 contractors and equipment.
Following today's weakness, the Liontown share price is now down approximately 50% over the past 12 months.
