PLS (formerly Pilbara Minerals) has created a more transparent and equitable trade environment, and levelled the pricing dislocation int eh spodumene concentrate spot market, by channeling spot sales through its new digital sales platform, developed by GLX Digital using sophisticated GLX CONNECT technology. Here’s their story.
THE NEED
To meet the increasing demand for spodumene concentrate, and resolve the pricing dislocation that exists in the battery materials market, PLS required a sophisticated new digital sales channel.
The platform needed to provide an easy to access, intuitive avenue for sales growth, and give counterparties the ability to access current and future unallocated spodumene concentrate product from across the company’s operations.
“Pilbara Minerals was looking for an avenue that would provide sales growth opportunities for its current and future unallocated product from its operation,” says Ken Brinsden, CEO, Pilbara Minerals.
“As the world’s largest, independent hard-rock lithium operation positioned to benefit from the increasing demand in the rapidly growing lithium supply chain, the company was keen to explore the extent of the value that could be derived from its product through a price discovery process, particularly with stronger market conditions emerging.”
THE SOLUTION
PLS investigated a range of internationally-available digital sales and trade platforms, but found the ideal solution in their backyard – Perth-based GLX Digital’s market leading workflow tool, GLX Connect, was found to be the most intuitive and easy to use, and makes the trading process more transparent and seamless (for both commodity suppliers and their customers).
PLS’ privately owned and secure platform, Battery Material Exchange (BMX), is a first for the battery materials industry and gives PLS the flexibility to transact by auction, tender process or bilateral sale.
“GLX CONNECT, which is the underlying technology powering the BMX, is an easy-to-use platform, customised for trading of spodumene concentrate, with the potential to also use the platform in the future for various other battery material products,” says Brinsden.
“The platform needed to be accessible to all customers globally and provide anonymity of their identity to allow the customer to trade with confidence, yet provide transparency on pricing and the trading process.”
Equally, with customers logging in from around the globe, the platform needed to be simple and intuitive, and communication with customers had to be immediate and clear, allowing the company to address trade queries in real time.
“The trading screen in particular is very sleek and easy to the eye,” says Brinsden.
“During a cargo auction, bidders are able to easily note the highest bid price, bidding history, key terms and important documents. The instant messaging system also provides a direct communication tool for our customers to quickly get in touch with Pilbara Minerals and have any queries dealt with promptly.”
THE RESULTS
The technology has allowed PLS to level the pricing dislocation in the spot market, and given the company profits in the vicinity of $1B.
“Pilbara Minerals is very pleased with the GLX Connect software, which we have chosen to power the Battery Material Exchange (BMX platform for short). It has enabled our business to realise a significantly higher value in the pricing of spodumene concentrate and maximise our exposure to rapidly expanding demand conditions,” says Brinsden.
“The auction hosting capability of the software has provided Pilbara Minerals with a direct line to reaching any number of market participants interested in purchasing spodumene concentrate, creating competitive tension and the price discovery it was seeking.”
Through the platform, PLS is now transacting and communicating directly with around 30 registered spodumene buyers. While this level of interaction has crucially supported the existence of a genuine spot market in spodumene it has presented the company with the challenge of vetting each counterparty and ensuring its data is secure. GLX Connect gives Minerals full user access capabilities.
“A security code, sent to the user’s device to complete a user login process, provides an additional layer of security to complete the user login process. The platform also provides us with detailed user access logs, informing the company of when, from where and how often a user is accessing the platform.”
PLS’ BMX system has democratised the spodumene concentrate market place and is providing the company with an environment where market participants can connect and transact more simply and efficiently. This was achieved through consultation with GLX Digital to meet the company’s unique digital trade workflow needs.
“The team at GLX Digital have been supportive, flexible and efficient in delivering the required solution to Pilbara Minerals. It was a pleasure working with them through the project delivery process.”
