Australia's IGO posts revenue jump but slashes outlook for major lithium mine (updated)

IGO

24/04/2026 24:36

Adds further details on results in paragraph 2 and 3

Greenbushes FY26 output forecast cut, misses consensus

Q3 Greenbushes spodumene output below consensus

Shares tank about 16%, worst day since Dec. 2014

Warns of rising fuel costs

April 24 (Reuters) - Australian battery metals producer IGO IGO.AX cut its annual output forecast for its Greenbushes lithium mine by about 11% on Friday, sending its shares crashing about 16% in their worst intraday drop in more than a decade.

Poorer quality ore, lower-than-expected ore extraction, and increased downtime due to maintenance impacted production during the quarter, prompting a sharp downgrade that missed the market consensus by 6%.

IGO shares plunged as much as 15.8% to A$7.190 as of 0334 GMT, marking its biggest intraday decline since December 2014.

IGO now expects Greenbushes lithium project to produce 1,375-1,425 kilotons of spodumene for fiscal 2026, below the previous forecast of 1,500-1,650 kilotons at the midpoint, citing weaker year-to-date performance and maintenance outages.

 The new forecast also misses the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 1,492.4 kilotons at the midpoint.

 In the quarter ended March 31, Greenbushes spodumene output came in at 351 kilotons, below market consensus of 399.9 kilotons, bringing the year-to-date total to 1,020 kilotons, down 10% from last year.

 "A disappointing outcome from Greenbushes obfuscates IGO's exposure to the lithium cycle," Jefferies analysts wrote.

Spodumene production has been impacted by the delays in the ramp-up of the third processing plant at the Greenbushes site, which is expected to add 500,000 tons to production when complete.

 Cash costs at the mine jumped 20% sequentially during the quarter, forcing IGO to raise its annual unit costs estimate for Greenbushes to between A$380-420 per ton, compared with a prior estimate of A$310-360 a ton.

 "Fuel costs have risen sharply and this will flow through costs in future periods," Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ivan Vella said.

 Group sales revenue jumped 45% to A$119.7 million ($85.21 million), driven by higher nickel sales volumes and realised prices from its Nova nickel mine, but fell short of street consensus of A$130.7 million.

($1 = 1.4047 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Nichiket Sunil, Sneha Kumar, and Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

((Nichiket.Sunil@thomsonreuters.com;))