Altura Mining Limited provided an update on the Stage 1 operations from the recently commissioned, flagship Altura Lithium Project located at Pilgangoora in Western Australia. Stage 1 production from the Project has a target nameplate capacity of 220,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of 6% grade lithium oxide (Li2O) or, as generally referred to, SC6.0 specification material. After overcoming some initial challenges and subsequent delays in stable production throughput, caused by the complexity of the process plant, the processing capability has since delivered positive increases in performance during the last quarter and continues to improve. The pleasing outcome for the Company has been the product quality with all cargoes dispatched either on or exceeding customer expectations, with four cargoes dispatched to Chinese based customers during the December 2018 quarter. Altura plans to dispatch regular monthly shipments of at least one cargo and moving to two cargoes each other month once nameplate is reached. Altura expects several months of steady growth in the production profile, which will culminate in reaching nameplate capacity of Stage 1. Challenges to date have largely been associated with consistent running time of the processing plant, and downtime required for modifications to plant components identified during the commissioning and ramp- up phase. Steady improvement has been demonstrated since these modifications were completed. During November 2018 the process plant was able to deliver output of up to 70% of nameplate over several continuous 24-hour periods, demonstrating the capability of the plant at that stage of commissioning. The key challenge is to stabilise the plant and deliver consistent output tonnage in line with product specifications. With a particular focus on reliability and flotation expertise, the Altura team has been supported by expert external consultants during the commissioning and ramp-up phase, utilizing the significant knowledge from plant designers DRA Global and supplemented by other processing specialists from Minnovo and Primero Group. The Altura team has formalised a continuing services contract with Primero Group focussed on improving the tonnage output from the coarse and fines circuits and scheduled maintenance of the process plant itself.