Piedmont Lithium’s strategic review supports production ramp-up at NAL

Piedmont Lithium (PLL) announced that, following a detailed operational review, the joint venture partners of North American Lithium – NAL – have agreed to complete several ongoing capital project initiatives and continue operations with the goal of completing ramp-up activities to achieve steady state production within 2024. NAL is jointly owned by Piedmont – 25% – and Sayona Mining (SYAXF) – 75% -. Process plant recoveries are now exceeding internal expectations. March month-to-date lithium recoveries were 69%, exceeding the ramp-up target of 67%, with global recovery of 62% during the July 2023 through March 2024 period. Current plant throughput rates are in line with forecast expectations and product quality remains consistent. The joint venture partners have conducted an operational review to assess the pace of the production ramp-up in the context of a challenging lithium price environment. The review concluded that operations are generally ramping-up as planned, and that completion of two capital improvement projects – a crushed ore storage dome and crushed ore re-feed system, both expected to be commissioned in May 2024 – should help operations achieve production increases and meaningful unit cost improvements. Unit mining costs also are expected to improve as operations move past underground workings and into fresh ore near the end of 2024.