Perth, Australia, April 27, 2026, 04:02 AWST
Liontown Limited has set an April 30 webcast for investors, analysts and media to discuss its March-quarter activities, putting a date on the next test for the Western Australian lithium producer after a sharp improvement in its last reported quarter. Chief Executive Tony Ottaviano will host the call at 10:00 a.m. AWST, the company said in an ASX release.
The timing matters because Liontown’s shares were last displayed by the company at A$2.24, a level that leaves less room for a soft update from Kathleen Valley, its key lithium operation. The market is looking for evidence that the move to underground mining is feeding through to costs, cash and saleable tonnes, not just production headlines.
In the December quarter, Liontown said revenue rose 91% from the previous quarter to A$130 million, while unit operating costs fell 17% to A$910 per dry metric tonne sold. A dry metric tonne, or dmt, strips out moisture from shipped material; all-in sustaining cost, or AISC, is a broader cost measure that includes items such as royalties and sustaining capital.
Ottaviano called that period a “major operational and financial inflection point,” saying open-pit mining had ended on schedule and Kathleen Valley was now fully underground. He also said pricing strength had continued into 2026, with higher prices expected to flow through in coming quarters.
The broader lithium tape has turned friendlier. Pilbara Minerals, a larger Western Australian peer, said on Friday that demand was broadening, with CEO Dale Henderson telling Reuters the sector was seeing “strong tailwinds” from electric vehicles, stationary batteries and emerging uses such as electric trucks. RBC Capital analyst Kaan Peker called Pilbara’s update “a clear beat” after record quarterly output. Reuters
That puts Liontown’s April 30 call in a tougher spot: investors may now expect more from producers that were still wrestling with costs and weak prices last year. Lithium traded at 173,000 yuan a tonne on April 24, up 13.44% over the previous month on a contract-for-difference benchmark tracked by Trading Economics, though that is a battery-chemical indicator and not the same as Liontown’s spodumene concentrate price.
Spodumene concentrate is the lithium-rich mineral product mined in Australia and processed into battery chemicals. Liontown said Kathleen Valley is in production and delivering concentrate to customers, and described the mine as Australia’s first underground lithium operation.
The company has also been trying to capture more market upside. In its December-quarter report, Liontown said its first spot-market auction closed at US$1,254 per dmt for SC6, a common benchmark for about 6% lithium oxide concentrate, and that it signed a new offtake agreement, or long-term supply contract, with China’s Canmax for 2027 and 2028.
But the recovery case is not clean. Liontown reported a first-half statutory net loss of A$184 million, widened by a one-time non-cash accounting charge, and Reuters reported in March that any board decision on a possible Kathleen Valley brownfield expansion was likely to rest on the path of lithium prices.
The next numbers should show whether recoveries and underground ore volumes are moving as planned. Liontown previously targeted a 1.5 million-tonne-a-year underground run rate by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2026, 2.8 million tonnes by the end of fiscal 2027, and lithia recovery of about 70% by the end of the March quarter.
The company’s own calendar lists the March 2026 quarterly report for April 30. Until that lands, the trade is a simple one: higher lithium prices and stronger peer updates support the bull case, but Liontown still has to show that Kathleen Valley is converting the better backdrop into lower unit costs and cash generation.
