Liontown Expands Its Spodumene Buyer Reach by 30% Through Digital Tendering

Liontown produces spodumene concentrate at its Kathleen Valley operation in Western Australia and sells it into the global battery supply chain. Most of its output goes to customers under long-term offtake agreements.

Lithium pricing is under close scrutiny across the market. Spodumene prices swung sharply between 2022 and 2026, and much of the trade still runs through bilateral negotiations that leave little public record. For producers, buyers and price reporting agencies alike, the question is how to anchor prices in real, verifiable transactions.

In November 2025, Liontown put a spot cargo out to tender on Metalshub.

When Liontown signed its first offtake agreements in mid-2022, the spodumene index had little physical trading behind it. They saw the risk of a long-term contract book priced off an index fed by only a handful of spot deals.

Liontown’s answer was to keep around 10% of its volume aside for the spot market from day one. Liontown points to iron ore as the model. About 10% of seaborne iron ore cargoes trade spot, and that 10% sets the pricing data points for the 90% that moves under contract.

A spot allocation only adds to price discovery if the sale itself is competitive and on record. With a 10,000 mt cargo of SC6 ready in late 2025, Liontown wanted to run a tender on an automated platform: one set of terms, a fixed bidding window, a wide group of qualified buyers, and a clear audit trail of every bid.

Liontown selected Metalshub’s Sales Solution, a sales platform built for raw materials, to run the tender. Three factors drove the decision.

• An event built for spodumene. Liontown set up a Request for Bids for SC6 with its own specification, timing and delivery terms, open for delivery to any major port in China. Every bidder submitted against the same terms, so Liontown could compare offers side by side and benchmark them against its GFEX-based price reference, instead of working through spreadsheets and email.
• Access to an active buyer network. Liontown invited around 70 companies from its own customer base. Metalshub opened the event to battery raw material buyers among the more than 3,000 companies on its platform, and companies not yet working with Liontown could bid directly.
• Speed to market. The event went live less than a week after the contract was signed. Metalshub’s team onboarded invited buyers ahead of the bidding window and supported Liontown through the event itself.

Liontown joined other lithium producers, including Albemarle, that sell through Metalshub’s Sales Solution.

The Request for Bids opened on 19 November 2025 and ran for six hours, from 08:00 to 14:00 (GMT+8). It covered 10,000 mt of SC6 for delivery to any major port in China.

Result	Detail
Bids received	14 (3 bids by new buyers)
Countries represented	9
Potential buyer pool	Up by about 30%, including companies Liontown had not worked with before

Liontown was happy with the outcome. “Metalshub introduced new customers that weren’t originally on our radar,” said Grant Donald, Chief Commercial Officer, Liontown, during our MetalshubTalks 006. “Ultimately, it increased our potential buyer pool by about 30%.” The tender gave its commercial team a clear read of market demand for the cargo, a documented record of every bid, and a set of new potential buyers for future sales.

For Liontown, Metalshub is one of several tools in its sales mix, alongside long-term offtake contracts. The first tender showed how a structured, time-boxed event can bring a wider group of buyers to the table and put spot prices on record.

Liontown expects digital platforms to lead lithium spot sales within three years. “Liontown remains fully committed to pushing more physical tons through digital spot markets,” said Grant Donald, Chief Commercial Officer, Liontown. As more lithium producers set volume aside for the spot market, structured bidding events give them a way to sell it competitively and add verifiable data points to the prices the wider market relies on.