Culture as a competitive advantage
Inside Kathleen Valley’s next phase of growth
The story of Liontown’s Kathleen Valley mine is one of rapid transformation. In less than six years, the project has progressed from resource discovery to production. Now, operations at the site are moving fast on every front.
Over the?past?five?years,?lithium has emerged as one of the defining minerals of the energy transition. In 2024 alone, lithium demand jumped about 30% year-on-year, significantly exceeding the 10% annual growth rate seen throughout the 2010s.
But since 2020, supply growth for battery metals also doubled, outpacing that growth in demand. As a result, lithium prices, which had surged eightfold during 2021-2022, fell by more than 80% between 2023 and 2025.
The outlook is now shifting again, with demand expected to grow by more than three times by 2030 as energy storage demand for homes, power grids and AI data centres booms while demand for lithium-based technologies for heavy-duty trucks, ships, aircraft and robotics emerge.
Despite a volatile lithium backdrop, Kathleen Valley 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 now 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.
Designed with maintenance in mind
The fourth-generation process plant at Kathleen Valley is truly one of the standout features on site. Because it was built from the ground up, the design team was able to prioritise operability, maintainability and maximum lithium recovery from the outset rather than retrofitting existing systems.
While plants are traditionally built with a small, cramped footprint that makes physical access difficult, Kathleen Valley’s was deliberately designed to be open and easily maintainable.
Liontown maintenance manager Dean Lilly says the wet plant features a central spine, with major processing areas like grinding and magnetic separation built off it.
“Because these sections are physically separated rather than crowded together, crews have extensive physical access around the equipment to perform work,” he said.
During the initial design phase, the team also integrated monorail cranes directly into high-frequency maintenance areas to facilitate a proactive maintenance approach that is typically neglected in the early stages of design.
“The plant has been engineered with maintenance in mind,” Mr Lilly said.
“There has been a lot of consideration put into the design, particularly for those hard-to-reach high traffic areas that are typically problematic.”
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.
As the company progresses its next expansion, operational readiness is being directly integrated into the project team. The expansion team is applying the same rigorous prep work toward cataloguing spare parts and pre-establishing preventative maintenance plans before operations commence.
“By investing time and resources upfront, the team avoids pressing a go button and then scrambling to figure things out during the critical handover phase,” Mr Lilly said.
“We’re approaching this expansion with the same rigour that we have approached all our projects, setting Kathleen Valley up for ongoing success.”
The people powering performance
At Kathleen Valley, technology is only half of the equation. The operations’ success hinges on its people and Liontown has consciously cultivated a culture of unity, individuality and support.
Liontown’s high standard of excellence starts on the ground with its philosophy that prioritises culture as much as technical capability.
“I’ve been there close to three years now and there is a real strong sense of team,” Mr Lilly said.
“The culture is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. The team has come together to really foster a widespread can-do attitude.
“It takes a lot of hard work to foster this culture successfully and I give a lot of credit to Liontown’s leadership team for facilitating that.”
As the expansion project gains momentum, Liontown is actively recruiting across a diverse range of roles, including engineers, maintenance, supervisors and operations.
Offering competitive salaries, access to superb facilities and state-of-the-art equipment and technology, Liontown provides unparalleled experience in future-proof mining industry careers.
