Piedmont Lithium shares up on continued record production at NAL

Shares of Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL; ASX: PLL) saw double-digit gains on Tuesday following the release of the company’s third quarter results, headlined by a new production record set by its North American Lithium (NAL) operation in Quebec.

The company owns 25% of NAL, North America’s largest operating spodumene mine, in a joint venture with Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA).

During the quarter, NAL produced around 52,100 dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate, up 5% from its previous record of 49,660 dry metric tonnes from the previous quarter.

The continued increase in quarterly production, said CEO Keith Phillips, is due to recent investments at NAL, particularly the recently completed crushed ore dome, the availability of which also drove an improvement in unit operating costs.

In addition to the progress in operations, Phillips noted that Sayona posted a significant increase in resources last quarter, indicating the “potential for a brownfield expansion of annual production at some future point.”

About 49,000 dry metric tonnes of the NAL output were shipped out, of which 31,500 tonnes went Piedmont, with the rest going to Sayona. From the NAL shipments, which also were a quarterly record, Piedmont booked US$27.7 million in revenues.

Lithium price hit

While the third quarter revenues represent more than double that of the second quarter, Piedmont’s net loss still went up by about US$3 million for the three-month period due to falling lithium prices. Realized lithium price for the quarter was US$878 per dry metric tonne, down 7% from the second quarter and 46% from the same period last year.

Citing market difficulties, Piedmont has been in cost cutting mode this year, reducing its total workforce by 48% between February and October. From this, the lithium miner expects to recognize US$14 million in annual cost savings in 2024, higher than the US$10 million it had expected to save at the beginning of the year.

Regarding its other operations, Piedmont said on Tuesday it expects to obtain the air and water permits for its Carolina lithium project as well as parliamentary ratification of the mining lease for its Ewoyaa project in Ghana in the first half of 2025.

Piedmont’s Nasdaq-listed shares gained 6.4% by 12:30 p.m. ET Tuesday following its third-quarter release, having risen as much as 13.6% earlier in the session. This lifted the company’s market capitalization to roughly US$251 million.