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Australia

Kathleen Valley Mine

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Australia

Kathleen Valley Mine

Location: 672 km NE from Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Address:

Level 2, 32 Ord Street
PO Box 284
Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6872

Contacts:

Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors

Categories

Summary

Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Lithium
  • Spodumene
  • Tantalum
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Room-and-pillar
  • Longhole open stoping
  • Transverse stoping
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Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is a Tier-1 battery metals asset with excellent grade and scale in one of world’s best mining districts.

The Kathleen Valley consists of open pit and underground mine, as well as a processing plant producing spodumene concentrate (SC6) and tantalum concentrate.

First spodumene concentrate production achieved on schedule on 31 July 2024. The tantalum circuit commissioned in Oct 2024.

As at Sept 2025, the open pit is nearing completion, underground production is scaling, and the process plant continues to perform strongly, treating Run-of-Mine stockpiles ranging from higher-grade clean underground ore to direct feeding Ore Sort Potential stockpiles with higher proportions of gabbro material from the open pit.

Between now and the transition to full underground in Q4 FY26, priority is to progressively ramp-up underground operations and target high-margin ore.

Kathleen Valley – Australia’s first underground lithium mine.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Liontown Ltd. 100 % Indirect
The 100%-owned Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is located on four granted Mining Licences and one Mining Licence application. The MLs have been transferred to LRL (Aust) Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liontown Resources Ltd.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Pegmatite
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Kathleen Valley Lithium Project is located on the western edge of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt within the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. The belt consists of mafic and ultramafic volcanics with considerable volumes of clastic sediments, minor felsic volcanics and differentiate gabbros. The greenstones in the Kathleen Valley area have been metamorphosed to upper greenschist-lower amphibolite facies metamorphic grades and include tholeiitic lavas, differentiated gabbroic sills and ultramafic chlorite schists.

Lithium mineralisation is hosted within spodumene-bearing pegmatites, which are part of a series of lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT)-type rare metal pegmatites that intrude mafic and sedimentary rocks in the region.

Twenty mineralised pegmatites have been identified at the Kathleen Valley Project hosted by two, outcropping, NW/SE trending pegmatite swarms – a shallowly-dipping, north-eastern swarm (Kathleen’s Corner), which contains approximately 90% of the pegmatites, and a steeper dipping south-western swarm (Mt Mann). The two swarms are interpreted to merge at depth to form a single, thick, moderately dipping mineralised body which remains open down-dip and along strike.

Most of the lithium is contained within spodumene. Small, isolated zones of petalite mineralisation have been observed in the north-western part of the deposit (this material equates to <0.5% of the resource samples).

The mineralisation is contained within pegmatite veins that are readily distinguished from the surrounding rocks. Sectional interpretation and wireframing indicates good continuity of the interpreted pegmatite veins both on-section and between sections. The confidence in the grade and geological continuity is reflected by the assigned resource classification.

Twenty lithium mineralised pegmatites have been identified at the Kathleen Valley Project which extend from surface to a depth of 640 m.

At Mt Mann, two steeply-dipping (-70° west) pegmatites have been drilled over a strike length of 1,200 m and to a vertical depth of around 300 m to 400 m. The two pegmatites are up to 35 m thick and have average thicknesses of 9 m and 11 m.

At Kathleen’s Corner, 18 sub-horizontal pegmatites have been drilled over an area of 1,800 m by 1,300 m. These pegmatites outcrop in the northeast and are up to 40 m thick with an average thickness of 8 m. The pegmatites coalesce and merge with the Mt Mann pegmatites at approximately 300 m to 400 m below surface to form a single, thick (35 m to 75 m) mineralised body that extends for a further 600 m to 700 m down-dip.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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AV - Autonomous

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Water usage

Parameter20252024
Recycled water 98.6 ML51 ML
Groundwater 1,979 ML736.54 ML

Commodity Production

FY2025: FY2025: First production occurred on 31 July 2024, with commercial production declared effective 1 January 2025.
CommodityProductUnits2025
Spodumene Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe
Li2O kt  ....  Subscribe
Tantalum Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2021 study. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics20252024
Stripping ratio OP  ....  Subscribe
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

Commodity2025
Cash costs (sold) Spodumene  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Spodumene  ....  Subscribe
^ Guidance / Forecast.
** Net of By-Product.

Mine Financials

Units2025
Capital expenditures (planned) M AUD
Capital expenditures M AUD  ....  Subscribe
Revenue M AUD  ....  Subscribe
After-tax Income M AUD  ....  Subscribe
EBITDA M AUD  ....  Subscribe
Operating Cash Flow M AUD  ....  Subscribe

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 11, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 18, 2025
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....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 18, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 18, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 18, 2025

Workforce

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2025
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2024
...... Subscription required 2024

Aerial view:

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