Australian-based battery minerals company Liontown Resources has completed negotiations to supply electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla with spodumene concentrate from its flagship 100 per cent-owned Kathleen Valley Lithium Project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.
Liontown will supply up to 150,000 dry metric tonnes (DMT) per annum of spodumene concentrate, representing about one-third of the project’s start-up production capacity of about 5OO kilotonnes per annum.
Supply is expected to begin in 2024, with the offtake agreement conditional upon Liontown commencing commercial production at Kathleen Valley by no later than December 1, 2025.
The agreement with Tesla is the second definitive agreement secured for Kathleen Valley following the foundational offtake agreement with LG Energy Solutions. This means that up to 60 per cent of Liontown’s planned production is now covered by long-term agreements with high-quality customers.
Liontown managing director and chief executive officer Tony Ottaviano said Tesla was a global leader and innovator in electric vehicles, and formalising arrangements for it to become a significant customer was a tremendous achievement.
“We are realising our ambition to become a globally significant provider of battery materials for the clean energy market.”