Posted on 30 Jul 2025
US carmaker Ford has cancelled some of its lithium order from Australian miner Liontown Resources, Kallanish understands.
Liontown said Tuesday it is reselling some of the feedstock initially intended for Ford to a Chinese buyer. The miner has signed an offtake agreement with a subsidiary of Chengxin Lithium Group for up to 150,000 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of spodumene concentrate, with pricing determined by a formula-based mechanism.
In 2022, Ford and Liontown signed a five-year deal for the supply of up to 150,000 dry metric tonnes/year from the Kathleen Valley project, starting from the beginning of commercial operations at the mine, which were slated for 2024. The US group had also agreed to provide an AUD 300m ($195m) debt facility for the project.
Open pit operations at the project, located in Western Australia, started a year ago and transitioned to underground production in April. Output targets were trimmed from 3 million t/y of spodumene concentrate by Q1 2025 to 2.8m t/y from 2027 amid the lithium price slump.
In its first 11 months, Kathleen has produced 300,000 wmt of spodumene concentrate. Liontown closed the financial year ended 30 June with AUD 301m in revenue and a cash position of AUD 156m.
The average realised price in Q4 was $740/dmt of battery-grade spodumene concentrate, a 9% fall quarter-on-quarter.
Ford was contacted for comment.
Australia-listed shares in Liontown closed 4% lower on Tuesday.
Source:Kallanish
