Sydney, May 19, 2026, 09:05 AEST
Mineral Resources Limited will bring its Bald Hill lithium mine back online in Western Australia. The company plans to ramp up site work in late May. Mining and crushing are set to kick off in June, and production of spodumene concentrate could start in July. Mineral Resources said the move follows a sustained recovery in lithium prices. Mineral Resources
Timing is in focus. Spodumene concentrate, the lithium-rich ore sent to refiners for battery materials, is back at the center of market pressure after a sharp rout triggered supply cuts in Australia.
China lithium carbonate closed at 191,500 yuan a ton on May 18, slipping 0.26% on the day. Prices are up 11.01% for the month, according to Trading Economics data. The refined lithium product is used in batteries and often tracks the wider lithium market. Trading Economics
Bald Hill, about 50 kilometres southeast of Kambalda, has capacity for roughly 165,000 dry metric tonnes a year of 5.1% spodumene concentrate, or 140,000 tonnes of SC6, which is the industry term for 6% lithium oxide concentrate. MinRes put restart costs, including working capital, at A$20 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. Bald Hill production guidance for fiscal 2027 will be released with full-year results in August. My ASP.NET Application
MIN slipped 1.03% to close at A$64.10 on Monday, trading in a range of A$63.13 to A$65.19. Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources also finished in the red. BHP and Fortescue dropped more, according to Google Finance. Google
The market slipped. The S&P/ASX 200 dropped 125.5 points, or 1.45%, to finish at 8,505.3 on Monday. The All Ordinaries slid 1.52%, ABC News reported. ABC News
Managing Director Chris Ellison said “the time is right” to restart Bald Hill, calling out a “resurgent lithium market”. The company said once Bald Hill is back in production, MinRes will be running three hard-rock lithium mines with their own spodumene concentrate plants.
Restarting operations is an internal job for MinRes, with the company saying its mining-services arm will run mining, crushing, processing and haulage at Bald Hill. The work stays inside MinRes’s build-own-operate model.
It’s also a jobs bump. The company is looking for about 370 positions, around 110 of those will shift in from other MinRes sites. Those spots will be backfilled.
Ellison’s share sale drew attention to the stock this week. A filing dated May 15 reported he sold 1.75 million MinRes shares from May 11 to May 14 at a weighted average of A$69.98. He kept 20.8 million shares, or 10.54% of MinRes’s issued capital. MinRes said the transaction was for Ellison’s personal financial planning, including a family office.
Bald Hill’s restart hinges on lithium prices staying up. If prices drop or if ramp-up costs run higher than planned, it could mean extra risk for investors. They won’t have full fiscal 2027 details on sales, costs or capital spending yet.
At this point, MinRes is putting the market to a straightforward test. The shares need to prove that new lithium output can offset the overhang from last week’s insider selling and a shaky Australian resources sector.
