Pilbara Minerals, which successfully unlocked one of Australia’s largest and most prospective lithium fields, is now well and truly a global company.
Such is Pilbara Minerals’ international appetite that it recently renamed itself to ‘PLS’ – the company’s current ASX ticker.
The change came after PLS completed its acquisition of Latin Resources and the Salinas lithium project in Brazil, which has since had its name changed to the Colina project.
“Pilbara Minerals will evolve its external facing brand to better support the future direction of the group and establish a naming approach that can accommodate future growth,” the company said in its December quarterly.
“The brand update aims to improve alignment with the group’s evolution into a multi-asset global lithium producer.”
While Pilbara Minerals catapulted up the ASX off the back of its WA lithium mine, Pilgangoora, the company has always had international ambitions.
In 2021, the company inked a joint venture with POSCO regarding the development of a downstream processing plant in South Korea, with construction completed in November 2024.
The Latin Resources acquisition signalled PLS’ first entrance into the emerging South American lithium market.
PLS believes the Colina project, which boasts a combined mineral resource inventory of more than 77.7 million tonnes, has the potential to be a top-10 hard-rock lithium operation in the future.
Latin discovered and developed the asset over 10 years, putting in significant groundwork with local communities during this time.
PLS managing director and chief executive officer Dale Henderson credited Latin’s work when the acquisition was completed.
“One of the attractions of Latin Resources was the strong foundation of community support that has been established,” he said.
Henderson said Colina has the potential to be “low-cost” and “accretive” for PLS shareholders, “offering us the flexibility to sequence new supply and diversify into emerging growth markets for lithium, such as Europe and North America”.
After reaching a recent peak of $2.45 per share in January, PLS has been hovering around $2.30 per share in the last few weeks.
Impacted by the price downturn, PLS will be hoping to rediscover the $5-plus levels it reached during the 2022 lithium boom.
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