Australian lithium producer, Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX: PLS) ('Pilbara Minerals' or 'the Company'), is pleased to announce the commencement of commissioning activities at the Ngungaju Plant, part of its 100%-owned Pilgangoora Project in WA's Pilbara region.

Just three and half months after announcing a Final Investment Decision for the restart, first ore has now been fed into the plant in support of near-term concentrate production. Pilbara Minerals' Managing Director and CEO, Ken Brinsden, said the commencement of commissioning marked the start of a staged ramp-up of the Ngungaju facility, representing another significant and exciting milestone in the rapid growth of the Pilgangoora Project.

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Commissioning of the coarse production circuit at the Ngungaju Plant is now underway, as Pilbara Minerals commences a staged ramp-up of this facility from care and maintenance.

Commissioning at Ngungaju follows a successful construction and maintenance acceleration program to bring-forward additional production and realise additional sales opportunities.

This is the first step of a staged recommissioning for the Ngungaju operation, with the fines spodumene processing circuit expected to commence production within the March Quarter 2022.

Annual production capacity of approximately 180,000 to 200,000 dmt is expected from the Ngungaju plant following completion of ramp up from mid-2022 onward, complementing existing production capacity from the adjacent Pilgan Plant (330,000tpa increasing to 360-380,000tpa following completion of improvement works).

Additional production from Ngungaju will allow further sales into the emerging spot market for spodumene concentrate including on the recently launched BMX digital sales platform.

FY2022 production guidance across the entire Pilgangoora Project affirmed at 460,000-510,000 dmt.

'This is a great result, which marks the culmination of the incredible hard work which our entire team has put in to transform the amazing resource at Pilgangoora into a globally significant lithium raw materials production centre,' he said. 'This first step of the Ngungaju restart has been delivered in less than four months since the Board approved a staged restart of Ngungaju, ahead of the guidance we gave to the market. 'This is a tremendous result, particularly considering the challenging environment in the WA resource sector for people, equipment and services. Pilbara's great people and all of our important partners have done an amazing job delivering a rapid re-start.

'The Board is very pleased with their achievements to date which stand-out for the strong technical work supporting the project, the quality of the build and the speed with which the entire project has been delivered. Together with the improvement works being made to the Pilgan Plant (which are expected to soon increase production capacity from 330ktpa to 360-380ktpa), Pilbara Minerals is firmly on track to achieve its goal of increasing annual spodumene concentrate production to 560-580,000tpa1 by the middle of next year.'

'With market conditions remaining extremely buoyant and the spodumene concentrate market continuing to show signs of being extremely short of supply, the Ngungaju Plant is expected to be capable of delivering uncommitted tonnes into the emerging spot market including through our BMX platform. 'We think that will be a very positive development for the market overall, increasing traded volumes, transparency and ultimately supporting the growth of the lithium raw materials supply chain globally.'

Contact:

David Hann

Tel: +61 (0)8 6266 6266

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