5 Biggest Companies in 2024

1. Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS)

Market cap: AU$13.18 billion; current share price: AU$4.41

Pilbara Minerals’ fully owned Pilgangoora operation has a range of global partners and produces spodumene and tantalite concentrate. The operation includes two processing plants called Pilgan and Ngungaju; the former produces both a spodumene concentrate and a tantalite concentrate, while the latter solely produces a spodumene concentrate.

In the third quarter of 2023, Pilbara Minerals concluded the optimisation and ramp up of the Ngungaju plant, achieving its target production capacity of 180,000 to 200,000 tonnes per annum of spodumene concentrate. Shortly after, the company announced commissioning activities at its South Korean-based lithium hydroxide processing plant, a joint venture with partner POSCO.

Pilbara is currently working on multiple expansion projects at Pilgangoora. Its P680 expansion is for a primary rejection facility and a crushing and ore-sorting facility; while the P1000 expansion is targeting a spodumene production increase at the site to 1 million MT per year.

Pilbara Minerals has long-term agreements with several high-ranking companies, including China’s Ganfeng Lithium (OTC Pink:GNENF,SZSE:002460), Great Wall Motor Company (OTC Pink:GWLLF,HKEX:2333), Yibin Tianyi and General Lithium.

2. Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN)

Market cap: AU$13.14 billion; current share price: AU$66.40

Mineral Resources is a Perth-based mining company with a focus on the iron ore and hard-rock lithium sectors in Western Australia. The company’s current lithium assets include Mount Marion and Wodgina.

In 2022, Mineral Resources and its joint venture partner Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) recommenced operations at Wodgina in response to surging lithium demand; they produced the first spodumene concentrate from train 1 in June of last year, and from train 2 last July. The company hopes to produce lithium hydroxide at Wodgina within the next five years.

The Mount Marion lithium project — located in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia — was upgraded this year to a production rate of 600,000 tonnes per year of mixed-grade product. The company has an eventual goal of 900,000 tpa, a 450 percent increase from its original capacity of 200,000.

In August 2023, Mineral Resources partnered with battery materials company Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT,OTC Pink:LMMFF) on a pilot plant to test the potential of the latter’s LieNA technology for enhancing lithium extraction yields. Subject to the results of the pilot plant study, the companies may enter a 50/50 joint venture to commercialise the technology.

3. Arcadium Lithium (ASX:LTM)

Market cap: AU$9.19 billion; current share price: AU$8.47

Arcadium Lithium formed out of the recent US$10.6 billion merger between Allkem and Livent, resulting in one of the world’s largest lithium companies with a production capacity of 248,000 MT of lithium carbonate equivalent per year.

The company’s operations and development projects are located in Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. They include hard-rock mining, conventional pond based brine extraction, direct lithium brine extraction (DLE) and lithium chemicals manufacturing to produce a wide range of lithium chemicals products.

This year, Arcadium plans to increase its lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide production by 40 percent to between 50,000 tonnes and 54,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalents. To do this, its ramping up lithium carbonate expansion activities at several assets including its Olaroz and Fénix brine operations in Argentina.

4. IGO (ASX:IGO)

Market cap: AU$6.18 billion; current share price: AU$8.16

Exploration and mining company IGO has a portfolio of battery metals projects, including the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation, the Forrestania nickel operation and the Cosmos nickel operation in Western Australia. The company’s battery metals interests also include a lithium joint venture with Tianqi Lithium (OTC Pink:TQLCF,SZSE:002466). The resultant company, called Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, holds a 51 percent stake in the Greenbushes lithium mine in Western Australia. Ultimately, IGO owns an indirect 24.99 percent interest in the mine.

The company highlighted a net profit after tax of AU$495.2 million in its December 2023 Half-Year report, compared with AU$631.4 million in the prior period. The decrease is attributed to lower prices for spodumene and decreased sales volumes.

5. Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR)

Market cap: AU$3.11 billion; current share price: AU$1.33

Liontown Resources has two projects located in Western Australia, which is rich in resources. The Kathleen Valley project is expected to become a top battery metals provider and is projected to begin development in Q2 2024. The company’s Buldania project has an initial mineral resource of 15 million tonnes at 1 percent lithium oxide.