Redefining lithium mining
Inside Kathleen Valley’s next phase of growth
The story of Liontown’s Kathleen Valley mine is one of rapid transformation. Moving from resource discovery to production in less than six years, operations at the site are moving fast on every front.
Despite a volatile lithium market, the project marked first production in mid-2024. Originally designed as a large-scale open pit mine, Liontown made the bold decision to shift the project’s trajectory and begin developing Australia’s first ever underground lithium operation. The open pit played a critical role in laying the foundation for this operational pivot and, by early 2026, the mine transitioned to a fully underground project.
By March this year, Kathleen Valley reached a 1.5Mtpa run rate and is targeting 2.8Mtpa by the end of FY27. Now, the company is concurrently developing two orebodies, scaling production and developing major infrastructure to support the planned expansion.
Both orebodies, Mount Mann and North-West Flats, possess distinct geological characteristics and play major but different roles in the project’s current ramp-up and future expansion plans.
Kathleen Valley Underground Manager Holly Keenan says the project has earned its spot within the top global hard rock lithium operations.
“Not only do we have these world-class orebodies, but we have the systems, processes, people and infrastructure to back it up,” she said.
“In the near-term, our primary focus is on ramping up Mount Mann, supplemented by North-West Flats, to reach our 2.8 Mtpa by the end of FY27 goal.
“Looking beyond that, our recently announced planned expansion is incredibly exciting and our ramp-up is a critical enabler to that.”
By adopting a staged build-out rather than a single aggressive jump, Liontown can incrementally unlock capacity to align with market demand.
During the recent market downturn, Liontown paused the development of North-West Flats to focus on the faster-to-access, high-margin ore at Mt Mann. In June 2026, the team recommenced North-West Flats operations and are now preparing to blast three new portals from the Kathleen’s Corner pit, where open pit operations are completed, to unlock key mining areas.
“Concurrent development of Mount Mann and North-West Flats is a key enabler to our planned expansion,” Ms Keenan said.
“This means a serious ramp-up in both people and equipment.
“Our fifth jumbo arrived in July and by September we will have seven operating on site, meaning a serious ramp up in our development rates.”
Unlike older operations that are required to retrofit new systems into legacy infrastructure, Kathleen Valley has been designed as a digital-first mine from the outset.
“Investing in technology is something that we’re extremely focused on, especially going into this next financial year,” Ms Keenan said.
“It’s one of those key enablers for us to understand how we can improve and do things more efficiently.
“One of the biggest advantages that comes with being a new operation is that we’re not trying to retrofit technology into our operation — we get to design it from the ground up.
In FY27, Liontown is prioritising data-driven decision-making using innovation to gather data to inform better operational execution, allowing the team to refine their extraction strategies based on continuous learning.
“We already remotely drill from the surface and remotely operate multiple loaders,” Ms Keenan said.
“Now, we have a full implementation plan for installing Wi-Fi underground, which will enable full live materials tracking.
“That will allow us to have short interval control from being able to track and see in real time where all equipment is underground and how it is performing.
“This shift from 24-hour performance reviews to early intervention enables us to maximise extraction.”
Beyond hardware and software, innovation at the site is supported by a highly collaborative culture and a high-performing technical services team.
“We’re continuously learning and improving our understanding which allows is to keep refining our strategy for extraction,” Ms Keenan said.
With a world-class orebody, fourth-generation process plant, one of Australia’s largest off-grid hybrid power stations and the southern hemisphere’s largest paste plant,?Kathleen Valley has already established itself as one of the world’s most significant lithium operations.
Beyond the mine itself, the other half of the Kathleen Valley story is the people that make it happen. Liontown’s high standard of excellence starts on the ground with its philosophy that prioritises culture as much as technical capability.
“Having a high-performing team is really the key for extracting the most value,” Ms Keenan said.
“Mining is a team sport. There’s no single discipline that makes the underground mine successful.
“It happens when geology, planning and survey projects, maintenance and underground operators all work together towards that shared goal and shared purpose. That is when we get exceptional outcomes.
“We do have a competitive advantage at Kathleen Valley around that because we’ve invested a huge amount of time in getting the right people in the right roles.”
As the expansion project gains momentum, Liontown is actively recruiting across a diverse range of roles, including engineers, maintenance, supervisors and operations.
