Drag to turn the globe

Mines/Australia

Pilgangoora mine

Pilgangoora mine, Australia. Producing, open pit, mining lithium, tantalum.

Why Pilgangoora is famous

Pilbara lithium and tantalum operation in Western Australia. Spodumene output was 221.3 kt in the June 2025 quarter and 224.8 kt in the September 2025 quarter after the P1000 expansion. A 2 Mtpa-plus study is due in FY27.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 2016 to 20232016 to 2023 lithium boom3
  2. 2022Lithium prices peak4

What kind of deposit

Lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite

Pilgangoora today

Where lithium is mined todayWhere tantalum is mined todayMining in Australia

Where next

Mines

An example ofGreenbushesPilgangoora made 224.8 kt of spodumene in one quarter of 2025. Greenbushes began in 1983.1Same kind of depositWodginaBoth are Pilbara pegmatite mines: Wodgina restarted in 2022, Pilgangoora made 224.8 kt in 2025.5

Events

Led to2016 to 2023 lithium boomRead what happened near Pilgangoora: 2016 to 2023 lithium boom.1Led toLithium prices peakRead what happened near Pilgangoora: Lithium prices peak.1

Deposit types

An example ofLithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatitePilgangoora belongs to the lithium-caesium-tantalum family of deposits.6

Sources

  1. September 2025 Quarterly Activities Report Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX)
  2. data/minerals/operations.csv Prospector Trails (internal)
  3. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2020: Lithium US Geological Survey
  4. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023: Lithium US Geological Survey
  5. Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 Albemarle Corporation (SEC)
  6. Mineral Deposit Models for Resource Assessment, Chapter O: Mineral-Deposit Model for Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum Pegmatites (SIR 2010-5070-O) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

The world runs on rockThe BatteryInside a lithium-ion cellHistory of miningThe new rush: lithium, cobalt and rare earths1888-2025The Super Pit gold mine at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, at sunsetMining historyGold rushes, then and nowGold and lithium · WorldwideGold drill-hole columns rising over the Yilgarn goldfields on a satellite map of Western AustraliaData storyUnder Western AustraliaDrill holes · Western Australia

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).