Arcadium Lithium announced it will place the Mt Cattlin Lithium mine in Australia on care and maintenance in 2025.

Arcadium Lithium announced it will suspend waste stripping and other preparational work for its stage 4 operations at the Mt. Cattlin mine in Australia, along with any expenditure related to expansion beyond the current stage 3 plan. The move to suspend operations has been taken in response to falling spodumene prices in Q3 2024, which have made the continuation of operations at the Mt Cattlin mine unjustified according to Arcadium. Stage 3 operations at Mt. Cattlin are scheduled to see production continue at the mine through until mid-2025, after which the operation will be placed on care and maintenance. Outside of Australia, Arcadium Lithium has also delayed its Galaxy project in Quebec, Canada, and the expansion of the Fenix lithium processing plant in Argentina as a result of the weaker price environment.

Mt. Cattlin is another casualty of falling lithium compound and spodumene concentrate prices, which have seen the margins of lithium producers globally increasingly squeezed. In Australia, Core Lithium placed the Finnis mine on care and maintenance earlier in mid-2024, while Bald Hill also remains on care and maintenance after restarting production in 2022.

According to Project Blue’s Lithium Extractive Cost Service, the Mt Cattlin mine finds itself in the 4th quartile of the industry cost curve in 2024. The mine has been under margin pressure in 2024 as spodumene prices have fallen, coupled with a significant increase in its mining and concentrator costs since 2022. Mineral Resources’ Mt. Marion operation is also contending with the looming need to switch to underground mining to maintain life of mine, which will further increase operating costs and would need to be supported by higher prices than we are currently experiencing.