Long lithium game just starting: PLS CEO
- 6 August 2025
French author Victor Hugo said: “If you're going through hell, keep going.” Or words to that effect. Winston Churchill might have borrowed them. PLS CEO Dale Henderson is leading the Australian lithium producer through some diabolical times with the mantra, keep going!
But the company has done much more than that.
“We hit our first lithium winter in 2019. At that time we almost froze to death,” Henderson says.
The lithium netherworld has frozen over not once but twice in the short life of PLS, formerly Pilbara Minerals, which was formed in 2013. “The chill this time is sharp,” says the former chief operating officer. “But this winter is different for PLS.
“The lessons from the last downturn have shaped our choices.”
Henderson was in Kalgoorlie at the annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum, surrounded this year by cash-machine gold producers and copper companies, rock stars of the global electrification shift.
Henderson says the world is going through a “generational industrial shift – a global transition from piped energy to wired energy” with lithium also at its centre.
“The lithium industry is expanding rapidly, powering one of the greatest industrial transformations of our time,” he said, adding the lithium market remained “volatile, fast moving and occasionally irrational”.
“But one thing remains clear, demand is not going away.
“Electrification isn’t slowing. If anything, it’s broadening across mobility, energy storage and even next generation technologies like AI.
“Five million EVs were sold in the second quarter of this calendar year, a 28% increase year-on-year. In China, the world's largest auto market, EV penetration exceeded 50% across May and June, with year-to-date sales up 33%.
“Energy storage [capacity] surged 46% year on year across the first half of this calendar year. The sleeping giant [is] awakening.
“Separate to that, more broadly, global clean-tech investment is forecast to reach US$2.2 trillion this calendar year.
“So these aren’t one-off spikes. This is structural, durable growth playing out in real time.
“This is the lithium paradox. On the one hand we’ve got market pain with prices being too low and unsustainable to support the current industry, let alone invest in the future industry. On the other side [is] the strategic game for those who are ready and able to respond.
“PLS is one of those companies.”
ASX-listed PLS, which has a current market value around A$6 billion, finished fiscal 2025 with $1 billion in the bank even after a year of heavy capital investment in its flagship Pilgangoora operation in WA. It also expanded geographically via its A$560m all-scrip acquisition of Brazil-focused Latin Resources and grew production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate in South Korea under its joint venture with POSCO.
Soft lithium prices were reflected in PLS’ 39% year-on-year revenue decline for FY2025 to $769 million, which came despite production rising during the year. Unit costs fell 10% yoy. June quarter output surged 77% above the previous quarter. Lithium prices which hit US$80,000/t three years ago averaged $13,000/t in the past 12 months.
“When prices were very high we reinvested back into the operations to reduce costs and increase flexibility,” Henderson said.
“We haven’t wasted this part of the cycle. We’ve used it to fortify our foundations, expand the operating platform and position PLS for what comes next.
“Pilgangoora [is] the engine room of our growth [and a] platform we’ve continued to enhance. And in FY25 it wasn’t just about performance that improved, the asset itself became even stronger.
“The total resource is now 446 million tonnes, a 23% increase in contained lithium and improvement in grade. This milestone reinforces our position as a tier one operator and once converted to reserve it’s expected to deliver even greater mine longevity.”
Henderson said while there were signs the lithium winter might be thawing, “volatility still remains high and visibility remains limited”.
“But that’s normal for an emerging market and it’s exactly why scale, balance sheet strength and strategic optionality, the foundations that PLS has deliberately built, matter more now than ever,” he said.
“As prices rise we’re positioned to capture margin, not chase it. We’ve seen this before, too, and during the last cycle our shareholders were handsomely rewarded through the up-cycle.
“But this time our leverage is even stronger, with nearly double the production capacity we had then.
“Now no one can precisely time the turn but when it comes we're ready, because the demand is real and the long game is only just beginning.”
