Lithium developer Liontown Resources has awarded a A$175-million spodumene and direct shipping ore (DSO) haulage services contract at the Kathleen Valley lithium project to logistics solutions provider Qube Holdings.

The five-year contract will involve the loading of spodumene concentrate from Kathleen Valley, haulage of the concentrate to the Port of Geraldton, storage and stockpile management at the port, and the outload to port infrastructure for shipment.

The contract is expected to start in mid-2024 and will be subject to Qube finalising arrangements to secure the storage facility at the Port of Geraldton.

“We look forward to working with Qube on the haulage and storage of our spodumene concentrate and DSO material from Kathleen Valley as well as benefiting from their expertise in the industry, especially with their extensive experience managing spodumene for others,” said Liontown MD and CEO Tony Ottaviano.

“This contract coupled with the underground mining services (due this quarter) represents one of the last few outstanding contracts to be awarded as we progress Kathleen Valley towards first production mid-2024.”

The 2.5-million-tonne-a-year Kathleen Valley operation will produce 500 000 t/y of spodumene concentrate, and in year six of operations, Liontown will look to increase the project capacity to four-million tonnes a year, delivering 700 000 t/y of spodumene concentrate, within six years.

Based on this production scenario, the Kathleen Valley operation is expected to have a mine life of 23 years, and will generate life-of-mine free cash flows of A$12.2-billion.