Liontown – which operates the Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia – expects to delay one shipment of lithium concentrate in July-September 2026 because of planned maintenance at Geraldton Port.
The company’s expected shipment delay is unrelated to production challenges, and it plans to make up for the delay over the rest of the July 2026 – June 2027 fiscal year, Liontown Chief Executive Tony Ottaviano told investors on 31 August.
Liontown’s average shipment size stood at 21,600 tonnes of lithium concentrate in April-June 2026, according to its June quarterly report.
The Mid West Ports Authority (MWPA) will close Berth 4 at Geraldton Port from 9 – 18 September for maintenance, port records show. Liontown and Iluka Resources ship lithium and heavy mineral concentrates, respectively, out of the berth, MWPA data show.
Liontown expects to produce 390,000-440,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate in 2026-27, up from 392,000 tonnes of concentrate in 2025-26, it told investors on 31 August.
The company will increase its lithium concentrate production in 2026-27 by ramping up underground mining at Kathleen Valley. It expects to annually mine 2.8 million tonnes of underground lithium ore by the end of the fiscal year, up from an annualised production rate of 1.5 million tonnes per year at the end of 2025-26.
Liontown shifted from open-cut to underground lithium mining at Kathleen Valley in December 2025 to access higher-grade lithium ore.
By Avinash Govind