Australian hard rock lithium producer Altura enters administration

[MELBOURNE] Australian lithium producer Altura Mining has entered receivership, administrator KordaMentha said, hit by a prolonged period of low prices for battery materials that has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

KordaMentha was appointed as administrator on Oct 26 by Altura's security agent, BNY Trust Company of Australia.

It is conducting an urgent assessment of Altura's financial position to begin moving the miner's Pilgangoora operations in Western Australia into care and maintenance in the coming week, the administrator said in a filing late on Monday.

It also called for interested parties to get in touch for sales or recapitalisation opportunities.

Prices for the lithium raw material known as spodumene have dropped 22 per cent this year to US$390 a tonne as restrictions on movement aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus have hit demand for electric vehicles, extending a decline from US$950 at the start of 2018.

Altura's shares were delisted on Aug 8, at which time the miner was capitalised at A$209 million (S$202.4 million) versus a peak of A$1.5 billion on Jan 3, 2018.

Altura in September said it expected spodumene production of 43,000 to 45,000 wet metric tonnes (wmt) in the July-September quarter in line with previous quarters, for shipping to long-term off-take partners.

It has supply agreements with Hunan Yongshan Lithium, a unit of its second-largest shareholder Ningbo Shanshan, as well as Ganfeng Lithium, GuangDong WeiHua Corp, Shandong Ruifu and Lionergy, Altura said in a March presentation.

In a separate filing on Tuesday, infrastructure contractor NRW Holdings which provides mining and drill and blast services to Altura, said that, together with subsidiary Action Drill & Blast, it had around A$9 million of exposure.

REUTERS