the chief executive of Pilbara Minerals, Ken Brinsden, said: “[…] I encourage you all – work harder on the culture in and around our workforce, in and around our work sites, in and around our camps.”
“Let’s have a crack at rehabilitating individuals, turning them around, making them better people,” he added. “And to my mind, that’s going to be a much more sophisticated and better industry response to what represents a reasonably serious challenge to the future of our industry.” Therefore, Brinsden pointed out that those involved in the mining industry must do better that they are doing today, in order to have 50 per cent of the gender balance into their workforce.
Pilbara Minerals is a major lithium and tantalum producer, which owns one of the world’s largest, independent hard-rock lithium operations. About a week ago, the company sold spodumene on the spot market for the first time, which drew strong interest from 17 bidders. Meanwhile, Brinsden gave a bullish outlook for battery minerals, noting that at the usual contracted price, spodumene would be valued at about $US680 a tonne or even $US700 a tonne under the best scenario.
“In this new emerging spot market, we achieved the equivalent of roughly A$1400 a tonne for our 6 per cent equivalent product – it’s consumed the entire margin that was otherwise open to the chemical conversion industry; the entire margin has been handed to the miner,” he said.
According to the mining executive, there were three reasons for this, namely, a genuine shortage of spodumene, people taking the view that chemicals pricing is going higher, while some have found themselves in desperate situations, with their buyers demanding them to deliver the agreed quantities of spodumene. “And that means that the miners are going to attract a higher margin than the historical norm,” he said.
