Alliance Mineral Assets hits lithium jackpot

SINGAPORE (Sept 23): When Alliance Mineral Assets (AMA) began production for tantalum last December, just over a year after listing, prices of the rare metal used in mobile phone electronic components were close to US$100 a pound ($1,357). It also had an offtake agreement with Mitsubishi Corp, one of the largest Japanese trading houses.

But this April, the price of tantalite, from which tantalum is extracted, slumped to just US$65 a pound. At those levels, AMA said its Bald Hill Project in Western Australia could barely break even.

CEO Tjandra Pramoko, husband of executive director Simone Suen, said AMA decided it did not want to continue mining for tantalite with prices so low. “We are just starting out. We have lot of overheads and other expenses, so we need the cash flow. We said, ‘Thank you, but for the next shipment, we have to delay because we cannot afford to produce as we will be losing money’.”

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