The first shipment of spodumene concentrate from Altura Mining’s lithium project in Western Australia has set sail from Port Hedland.

The vessel, ‘MV Clipper Tenacious’, was loaded with approximately 5,000 t of concentrate and is headed for Altura’s offtake partner Lionergy in China.

The focus for Altura is now the ongoing ramp-up of production to the nameplate capacity of 220,000 t/y of 6% LiO2 concentrate and regular shipments, Altura said, with the next shipment expected to depart in late October.

Altura Mining Managing Director James Brown said the company was now part of the “lithium-ion battery revolution”.

“A little bit of the Pilbara will now be found in the car, mobile phones and static storage batteries of the future.”

It was only in July, Altura declared first concentrate output from its mine, 16 months after the company broke ground on the project and two months since crushing operations began.