The Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price is tracking lower in morning trade on Wednesday.
At the time of writing, the company's shares are swapping hands at $2.71 apiece, down 1.09%, recovering from an earlier low of $2.62 a share.
Meantime, the broader S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) is also down 0.3% while the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is currently 0.4% lower.
The ASX lithium company released the results of its battery metals exchange (BMX) auction today and this is likely inflecting on the share price.
The company also released its presentation to the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum, held from 1-3 August. Here are some of the details:
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Pilbara Minerals' value proposition on show
In its presentation, the company provided an overview of the market opportunity. It noted the lithium 'deficit' is expected to grow to approximately 1.8 million tonnes at base level.
Moreover, the price of lithium continues to remain strong with spodumene prices still commanding more than US$5,000 per tonne, according to the presentation.
Pilbara Minerals said it produced 377,902 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of spodumene concentrate in FY22 and shipped more than 361,000 dmt in the same period.
As part of the presentation, investors were shown a walk-through of the company's plans on the way to achieving an output of one million tonnes per annum.
Pilbara Minerals projects "accelerated growth to capture improved demand conditions and increase revenue" in the coming years.
The company also gave an overview of its lithium battery project at a community school in the Pilbara. Here, the company will install a combined 33kW PV [solar photovoltaic] and lithium battery storage system in a partnership with Pacific Energy and the Strelley School.
It is set to provide a renewable energy source to replace diesel usage – currently at approximately 170-180 litres/day.
This will free up cash from the displaced diesel that will then be re-purposed for education, estimated at approximately $15-$25,000 per year.
In the last 12 months, the Pilbara share price has held a gain of more than 38% despite slipping into the red this year to date.
