Mineral Resources to shutter Bald Hill lithium mine amid price slump, with 300 jobs affected

The run of body blows for beaten-down Mineral Resources continues, with the miner announcing the prolonged price slump for key battery ingredient lithium is about to claim another victim — and up to 300 jobs.

The Chris Ellison-led miner told investors on Wednesday that its Bald Hill operations in the Goldfields would be shifted onto care and maintenance from this week.

MinRes said the transition would preserve cash and the value of the project’s spodumene orebody as it waits for improvement in a depressed market.

“Mining and mobile maintenance operations will cease from today, with the spodumene concentrate plant and accommodation village scheduled to temporarily cease operations by early December,” it said.

“Approximately 300 employees will be impacted and all Bald Hill employees will be prioritised for redeployment across MinRes’ other operations in WA. Where redeployment opportunities cannot be found, a redundancy process will be followed.”

A skeleton crew of 10 will remain on site to wind down operations, which MinRes said could be back in action within four to six weeks if and when prices improve.

Bald Hill was picked up from Alita Resources only a year ago for $260 million and has the capacity to produce about 150,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate a year.

The news comes just days after WA’s newest lithium player — Liontown Resources — revealed the market downturn had forced it to rein in its ramp up plans.

Just three months after turning out first production, the Gina Rinehart-backed miner told investors on Monday that it was “resetting the baseline” for its flagship Kathleen Valley mine in the northern Goldfields.

The revised mine plan will now deliver an annual production rate of 2.8 million tonnes from the end of the 2026/27 financial year — down from an initial ramp up target of 3mtpa.

The benchmark price of the spodumene concentrate MinRes and Liontown sells is currently between $US780 and $US810 a tonne, according to various price reporting agencies, which marks a decline of about 40 per cent so far this year.

Mr Ellison — who is set to leave the company he founded amid the fallout from a tax avoidance scandal — said Bald Hill remained a “significant” value opportunity for MinRes once prices for lithium improved.

The announcement coincided with a large update to the project’s mineral resource.

“Placing Bald Hill on care and maintenance is a prudent decision but one not made lightly. The decision aligns with the work we have done across the company in recent months to reduce costs,” he said.

“The significant upgrade to the Mineral Resources statement is evidence that Bald Hill is a high-quality asset with a long-term future.

“We will continue to monitor lithium prices and site operating costs with a view to recommencing operations once conditions improve.”

And MinRes’ woes may not yet be over.

It is also facing pressure from a joint venture partner in another lithium mine in WA’s north to trim output.

US lithium kingpin Albemarle said earlier this week it wants MinRes to scale down activity at Wodgina, 120km south of Port Hedland. The company lost $US1.1 billion ($1.65b) for the September quarter and is rolling out another round of cost cuts to save roughly $600 million annually.

Ken Masters, the chief of Albemarle, suggested to analysts that he wants MinRes to put one of the two Wodgina processing trains on ice. The mining operation is very likely loss-making at current prices of about $US800/t.

Mothballing Bald Hill is also likely to put MinRes’ shell-shocked share price under more selling pressure.

The stock has already lost more than $1.6b after revelations about Mr Ellison’s secret dealings with the Australian Taxation Office over an offshore tax haven were reported last month.

The miner said last week that Mr Ellison would stand down within the next 12 to 18 months after it released damning findings of a long-running probe that discovered “at times Mr Ellison has not acted with integrity” and that he “failed to be as forthcoming with the board as he should have been”.

The board’s investigation was launched late last year over a secret deal that Mr Ellison struck with the tax office after voluntarily disclosing a scheme involving equipment sales through a British Virgin Islands company.

It has also triggered an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and a series of questions from stock exchange officials.

Shares in MinRes were down 3.4 per cent in early trade, in line with the broader weakness among its lithium peers.