This year we're celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first drill hole at Pilgangoora in November 2014. So the early days at Pilgangoora were pretty tough. We didn't really have any support there at all, other than the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser and lots of flies, lots of dust, lots of spinifex, but really nothing else. We were basing ourselves out of an old tin shed. It was really, really, really hot in there, 50 degrees under the shade. The five founding geologists, we all met at university back in the mid-1980s: Neil Biddle and John Young, Stuart Till and George Karageorge, and myself. So many milestones along the way. The first blast in Central Pit was amazing. It was really a moment in time where we knew that this is it.
We're starting a big operation now, and in just four years got to first production, and we've grown the resource out since then to become one of, if not the largest hard rock lithium resource in Australia. That's been a fantastic journey and one that I've been really proud to be associated with. From out of those were Pilbara Minerals had its first office at a tin shed, which was quite significant given that we had our tin shed up on site as well.
When we started at Pilgangoora, none of us knew what spodumene looked like, and the first challenge was to be able to identify spodumene, and once we were all able to identify it, it became very obvious in the outcrops, and we knew we were sitting on mountains of the stuff.
Quality project and quality people, you need both. It was a hard time. There wasn't a lot of money going around, so we had some quality people that had worked for us before, and we got a team together and away we went.
You could barely get into Pilgangoora in the early days. There was just a cattle track on the first day, on the first hole. It was a massive dust storm. We lost equipment and went flying. The drone went missing. Not ideal. We got about five hours of drilling in. From that day on, I don't think we ever looked back.
It's just remarkable to think that, yeah, 10 years ago we had our founding geologists sleeping in swags. Fast forward to today, we're a major lithium producer, one of the largest globally. The hallmarks of Pilbara Minerals' journey, it's one of grit, determination, looking out for each other, and working together to find a way through. And gee, it's been a wild ride. The world is changing. Pilbara Minerals finds itself in an incredibly unique position, and it's really exciting to think where the company might be in 10 years from today.
Kaya and welcome everyone to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Pilbara Minerals Limited. My name is Kathleen Conlon, and I'm the Chairman of Pilbara Minerals. We hope you enjoyed the video marking the 10-year anniversary. The Pilbara Minerals story has been a remarkable journey of growth with much more to come. Before we commence the presentations and the formal business of the meeting, for those of you in the room, please refer to the visual on the screen for evacuation procedures should there be an evacuation event. I would now like to welcome Whadjuk Nyungar Elder and Traditional Owner Emeritus Professor Dr. Len Collard to provide the Welcome to Country.
[Foreign language] So to translate it to Australian, kaya means G'day . Hello. Greetings. Janamuk translates to how are you? So these are all the words that in our language, the bosses of the Swan River, we use when we talk to people that come to our land. But I also learned to speak in Australian because I knew that if I keep speaking to them in Nyungar, I might go over their head. So I do tend to talk in at least two different languages, or possibly even three. Nyungar, Australian, and English. So who speaks Nyungar? Put your hand up. No. All right. Who speaks Australian? And who speaks English? So the segue in the welcome and the communication capacity is to explain the relationships in a communication way. So when the boat people turned up down here off of Fremantle, they spoke English.
The Nyungars, my family looking out, watching them saying, "Hey, who's them fellas coming into our backyard?", and they were speaking in Nyungar, and so eventually the Nyungars and the Wadjelas got together and had a dialogue, and now we've got this thing called Australian. But the irony of it is our nation still says we speak English. I've been to England. I've been to Scotland. I've been to Wales. I've been to Ireland, and I struggle to figure out which one of them actually speak English because the Welsh say, "No, we speak Welsh." The Irish say, "No, we speak Gaelic." The Scots, they do Celtic, and well, the rest of them, they just talk as well, so [Foreign language] Nyungar, [Foreign language] Swan River. [Foreign language] .
[Foreign language] . So, to translate it to what language? English or Australian? I'll go for the Australian. All I said is our people have been here a long time. We welcome you here to this river, the Riverlands, and in the future when you get home, tell your family that you met some Nyungars down at UWA. I hear you are mainly in the Pilbara mining and creating economic prosperity for all and sundry, and obviously working heavily to try and minimize the pollution of oil and gas and other sort of stuff that goes on.
I think without telling you, you already know that lithium is going to be one of the go-to minerals that's going to help power us into the future. I want to say to the Board, thanks so much for doing the work you do. It's only 10 years. Jeepers, me. Every time I look in the paper, I see Pilbara Minerals. Feels like you're way beyond 10 years of age. I know that there's some really busy and important work going on here, and the chairman said, "Len, I know those Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, how they go on and on and on, but mate, we've got a lot of stuff to cover. Can you please give us an edited version?" Which I am. That's the edited version.
I want to say great to see you here at the beautiful campus at UWA, and hopefully we'll catch up again soon in the not too distant future. Bless you, and hopefully, as we all do, that the economy starts to power up again like the lithium batteries of the future, and we'll all be smiling and singing the song about the ASX going up like a skyrocket. Thank you very much, everyone, and I'll finish off by playing a tune on the didgeridoo. Why do we do that? It's really to bring what Nyungars call the kwop wirrin . It's bringing the good spirit because I know there's going to be some robust conversation from the shareholders and the stakeholders to the Board and vice versa, so I'm going to do the nice bit at the start.
Bless you and leave you to the conversations and figuring out where to from here. Just to finally say, one of the Nyungars say when they say, "See you later on." See you later on. Or in our language, you say, "[Foreign language] , I'll see you in the future." Thanks so much, and bless you.
Thank you to Dr. Len Collard for the welcome to country. I too would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, the Whadjuk Nyungar people, and pay my respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which our Pilgangoora operation is located, the Nyamal and Kariyarra people, and their enduring connection to country. I'd like to introduce the PLS team. So with me today is our Managing Director and CEO, who I'm sure you all know well, Dale Henderson. Non-executive Director, Steve Scudamore, Nick Cernotta, Sally- Anne Layman, Miriam Stanborough, and our Company Secretary, Danielle Webber. Also in attendance, and I'm sure you're going to want to ask them a lot of questions, are the Pilbara's executive leadership team. Our Chief Financial Officer , Luke Bortoli. Our Chief Sustainability Officer, Sandra McInnes.
Our Chief Development Officer, John Stanning, Project Director, Paul Laybourne, General Counsel, Jen Mintz, and Executive General Manager, Operations, Brett McFadgen . I'd also like to acknowledge in attendance the company share registry Computershare, represented by Rod Somes. This year's Annual General Meeting is to be conducted as a hybrid meeting, being held physically here at the University Club of Western Australia, as well as online via the Computershare Meeting platform. We have encouraged shareholders to use either of these platforms available to participate in this meeting. I will now deliver a brief address, which will be followed by a presentation by Dale Henderson, and finally, we will move to the formal business of the meeting and provide an opportunity for questions. Thank you, everybody, for joining us here in Perth, as well as those who have connected with us online. Welcome to our Annual General Meeting.
The strong support from shareholders is greatly appreciated and is recognized as a strength of our business. Many of our shareholders have been along the journey with Pilbara Minerals since the beginning, and we thank you for your support. This is your company, and it's great to see a number of you here today. It's my pleasure to deliver my first address to shareholders as Chairman of Pilbara Minerals. I chose the role because I was looking for a strong growth company with long-term potential, a strong executive team with operating and project track records, a strong balance sheet to support the growth, and an opportunity to make a real difference in the energy transition. And I was absolutely captivated by the story of Pilbara Minerals, such a great Australian success story. It's a company that delivers on its promises and does things differently.
As we saw in the video earlier, it's been 10 years since a team of visionary geologists completed the first drill hole into what we now know as the largest lithium ore reserves in the world, Pilgangoora. Four short years to first production, and in six years, we've become one of the world's leading lithium producers, with Pilgangoora supplying 11% of the world's hard rock lithium. As a Board, our role, first and foremost, is maintaining a high standard of governance. Strong corporate governance underpins good decision-making and makes sure we maintain the highest standard of responsible and ethical business practices. We remain committed to strong compliance, transparent disclosures, and independent decision-making by acting with integrity and always in the best interest of the company and shareholders.
As a contributor to the global energy transformation, sustainability is a core focus for us, and I'm pleased to share that we've made significant advances in our sustainability journey in FY 2024. This includes our continuous improvement in procurement and due diligence of suppliers, improved safety performance, the release of our power strategy, and our growing portfolio of partnerships with community organizations. Our safety performance remains strong. As our operation grows, so does our responsibility to make sure that our people go home safe and well every day. As Pilbara Minerals evolves and matures as a business, we continue to ensure that we are creating shared value for the communities in which we operate. The 2024 financial year saw a softening in lithium prices that impacted on financial performance, but as a nascent industry, pricing volatility is expected.
During these times, we remain focused on what we can control and delivering on our commitments. We continue to build our strong production base and find organic growth opportunities to build scale and strengthen our position as a low-cost global supplier of battery metals. Our two major expansion projects progressed to plan, on time, and on budget. The P680 project was commissioned, delivering not only a lift in production but greater processing efficiencies, further strengthening our position as a low-cost operator. Our second expansion, P1000, continues to progress on schedule and on budget. The project is 80% complete as of the end of September and on track for first ore in early 2025. This stage approach to growth aligns with our strategy to unlock the full potential of our flagship operation at Pilgangoora. While growth continues on home soil, we extended our position in the global battery metal supply chain.
Construction of the lithium hydroxide chemical facility in South Korea, built in joint venture with POSCO, is now complete and achieved first production from Train 1 earlier this year. We commenced a joint feasibility study with Ganfeng for another potential downstream lithium conversion facility. During the financial year, construction commenced on the Midstream Demonstration Plant project in joint venture with Calix Limited. Despite the pause to construction announced in the September quarter, we remain committed to this project and see it as a potential game changer to the entire industry. Subsequent to the end of the financial year, we announced a conditional acquisition of Latin Resources, who owns the Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil. This is on strategy, countercyclical transaction to diversify revenue beyond Pilgangoora, which will deliver a second 100% owned hard rock lithium asset.
The all-share transaction is a major step in Pilbara Minerals' growth story, taking us beyond the Pilbara to new markets and new horizons. Last month, we announced a new operating model in which we will place our smaller processing plant, Ngungaju, into temporary care and maintenance in December. Optimizing our Pilgan plant, where the investment focus has been for the last 18 months, was a necessary and strategic step to preserve cash and our lithium reserves. This decision was made in conjunction with the planned completion of P1000, which enables us to meet our offtake commitments and maintain production to similar levels to FY 2024. The agile nature of our operating model and ability to adapt to changing market conditions has placed us in a strong position.
In 2015, the same time the team of geologists were drilling the first holes at Pilgangoora, a total of 370,000 electric vehicles were sold worldwide. Fast forward to 2024, and China now sells the same number of EVs every two weeks. Looking further ahead, the long-term demand for EVs and battery storage remains incredibly robust. We believe that no other lithium company is better placed to weather current conditions and capitalize when the market turns than Pilbara Minerals. We are resolute in our focus to create value for our shareholders and our communities in which we operate. I acknowledge the Managing Director and CEO, Dale, who is a steady, experienced hand at the wheel, backed by a talented and energetic leadership team. To all the great people of Pilbara Minerals, thank you for your continued effort and passion to make a difference. Pilbara Minerals is in a strong position.
We have a clear strategic direction, prudent financial management, and disciplined decision-making. With a solid operating performance and on-track project delivery, we remain focused on navigating this phase of the market. A bright future lies ahead, and we thank you for joining us for the journey. Now, before I hand over to Dale, it would be very remiss of me to neglect to mention that Mr. Tony Kiernan, who stepped down as Chairman of the Company at the beginning of last year, is in the room today. So Tony, could you please stand so we have the opportunity for shareholders to show their appreciation to your significant contribution? I've been told I've missed a procedural piece. So before I ask Dale to come, we will not address questions in the presentation in the general business until the formal part of the meeting.
For those who are attending virtually, you may submit your question at any time by typing and submitting a question on the online platform. To ask a question, select the Q&A icon and type your question in the text box. Alternatively, if you wish to ask a question verbally, please follow the instructions written below. Further information about the submission of questions via the online platform is set out in the Online Meeting Guide, available on our website or as an attachment. Please note that you can submit online questions from now, but they will not be addressed until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or, if we receive questions on more than one topic, amalgamated together.
If your question relates to one of the resolutions to be put to shareholders during the formal business, please reference the specific item it relates to, and it will be addressed in the room at the relevant time. For those in the room, I ask that you hold your questions until we reach the resolutions. So with that, I'll hand over to Dale.
Thank you very much, Kathleen, and good afternoon, everyone. A warm welcome to you all. And I'd also like to thank Dr. Ken, sorry, Dr. Len Collard, for his wonderful welcome to the country. Hard to imagine 10 years to this day and from first drill hole to where we are. And 10 years ago today, global EV sales equated to about 1,000 cars every day. Today, that number will be sold by the time I finish this presentation. So it gives you an idea of how quickly the market has changed. This will be a short presentation too, not a six-hour presentation, just for the avoidance of doubt. Now, over those 10 years, we have seen a more than 40-fold increase in EV sales. Now, in addition to that, demand is growing across a number of subsets, including mass energy storage, buses, motorbikes, planes, and you name it.
There are more and more products coming forth. Now, Pilbara Minerals has emerged over this period, growing in lockstep with this incredible market growth, but it's a nascent industry, and it's been a wild ride. Now, if there's one thing I'd like you to take away from this presentation today, it is an understanding of the strategy we've been pursuing in this exciting growth industry, and secondly, our disciplined delivery against the strategy. Now, in the years I've been with Pilbara Minerals and for most of the Board members, we've already seen several cycles. This experience has deeply shaped our approach to navigating this market, and the outcomes of these learnings are starting to flow through in the results that you're starting to see, particularly in this past year.
Today, what I'll take you through is how we're positioning the business to not only navigate this point of the cycle, but to capitalize on this emerging sector. I'll start with the market update because it all starts there. I'll then move to the FY 2024 highlights, stepping through each of the planks of our strategy, our operating platform, how we're growing that operating platform, chemicals, and lastly, diversification. To start, just a quick recap on Pilbara's position. Over the last 10 years, we've been developing and operating one of the largest hard rock lithium assets globally, the Pilgangoora asset, located 140 km southeast of Port Hedland on Nyamal Country. The Pilgangoora asset offers a multi-decade mine life of more than 33 years at our expanded production capacity. We've been growing this operating platform in a way which delivers on two key outcomes.
Firstly, it's about growing out the production base such that we can leverage that higher volume into a higher price market when that returns. Secondly, it's about investing in capital, which brings us to the left of the cost curve such that we're more competitive. Number two, we unlock more margin for our shareholders. As it relates to chemicals participation, that's been going very well, and I'll make some comments on that a little bit later, and then beyond that, we are diversifying beyond our base asset with the commencement of the acquisition of Latin Resources. This all-scrip non-cash transaction provides a win-win for both shareholder groups to combine and leverage the strengths of Pilbara Minerals for the development of this high-quality hard rock asset in Salinas. The Latin team has developed a fantastic asset there in the great mining state of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
We're joined here today by the Managing Director, Chris Gale from Latin Resources. Thanks for coming in, Chris. Chris is available to field questions too at the end of the presentation. Now, stepping forward, this plot illustrates the growth milestones of Pilbara Minerals as against our share price over the past five years. Now, in the past few days, we've seen Pilbara's share price take a hit. There has been some downwards movement. This is principally owed to an index shift. Pilbara has shifted out of the MSCI World Standard Index, which PLS joined in October 2022. Now, what that equates to is roughly AUD 600 million worth of share inflows and outflows as a function of moving out of that index. So that's what we think is principally responsible for this recent share market dip that we've seen.
But having seen that past us, we're looking forward to things settling and normalizing. Now, the milestones on the graph are physical capacity milestones. So this includes our ore body increases, includes our various legs of expansion, and it also includes our asset acquisitions marked across there. But in parallel to this, other areas of progress have included our partnerships. Our maturity pathway with partnerships has been at least as busy as what you see here. And also, our financing maturity curve is also at least as busy as what you see here, neither of which is shown. But across those three fronts, the expansions, our partnerships, and financing, we've been moving forward in leaps and bounds. What has been an impressive journey by any measure.
It's timely to acknowledge the many people that have contributed to Pilbara Minerals' journey to date, of which Kathleen noted a number of them. And please indulge me as I do a shout-out to a number of these again because they've been absolutely integral to the success we've had to date and will be integral to our success moving forward. So that includes our Indigenous landowners, Nyamal and Kariyarra, our customers, our financiers, our contracting partners, and of course, you, our shareholders. Thank you for your support and ongoing support. But I'd also like to make special mention of our great people across the business, whom are the driving force and the owner of all the results Pilbara Minerals delivered to date. I'd also like to acknowledge our executive team here that we've got sitting in the front row: Luke, Brett, Paul, Sandra, John, and Jen.
And again, I'd encourage you to have a conversation with them after the formal proceedings. And also to the Board of Pilbara Minerals, I'd like to acknowledge the huge role that they've played in stewarding the company to date. They have felt each bump in the road and have wrestled with each of the key decisions as we've come up to each decision juncture along with the executive. And in the Board, we have the combination of both depth of experience, spread of experience, and now lithium experience care of the Pilbara's journey to date, which, frankly, lithium experience is in short supply, and we have that now on spades care of the Pilbara's Board and the broader Pilbara team. Kathleen did a shout-out to TK. Good to see you.
Former Chair, seven-plus years at the helm, who bowed out at the start of this calendar year after serving an absolute stellar innings, and of course, we've had Kathleen coming up to almost a year now, has been like a duck to water, and has wasted no time getting up the learning curve and making a really positive impact, and we're really grateful to have someone of Kathleen's caliber joining the Board. Welcome, Kathleen. Now, I mentioned that it's been a wild ride, so let's move to the market, so the lithium market, well, we're all witnessing the emergence of multiple new sectors and supply chains. For lithium, the emergence has got sort of three key structural drivers behind it. It's about new technology, it's about the global energy shift, and it's about geopolitical forces.
So as it relates to new technology, of course, we've seen EVs, we've seen mass energy storage, planes, e-bikes, among others. The global energy shift is, of course, about moving from pipes with essentially carbon-based energy moving to wires with green energy. And then as it relates to geopolitical forces as well, we've seen both incentive-type approaches occurring and a scramble for critical mineral security, coupled with protectionist levers and actions also emerging. Both of these things are occurring of late. And notably, we've seen some tariffs get foreshadowed today care of the Trump administration. So there is plenty going on across the board. Now, this graph that you can see shows the appreciation in lithium supply since 2015. And you can see supply has generally kept pace. However, there have been imbalances. And I'll draw your attention to calendar year 2021, 2022.
At this point here, we saw a shortage of lithium supply. That shortage was only about 4% by volume. So relatively speaking, a very narrow shortage during that period. It made a huge impact. Please take note of this period, and I'll speak to that in a moment. Now, as it relates to pricing, well, it has been an absolute wild ride. Pilbara has been riding that roller coaster since 2017. Now, what you can see here is the lows of sub-$400 per ton in 2019, 2020. We then went to highs in 2022, where, as you can see here, it was about $6,000 per ton. On a spot basis, it actually went above $8,000 per ton. These were levels which had not been ever achieved in the history of the industry.
In fact, well more than sort of six times the previous highs, which occurred in early 2018. Now, that period I mentioned a moment ago with the imbalance of 4%, well, this is it here during 2021 and 2022. So what I'd call out here is, despite what was a relatively minor imbalance in supply, that translated through to an outsized pricing response. The second thing to call out is that pricing response was incredibly rapid and nobody forecast it. It came out of nowhere. Now, I'd put to you that I think a lot of the conditions which set up this run are still here today. And we should bear this in mind as we think about navigating the market as this industry continues to evolve. So what we're witnessing are dislocations in pricing relationships.
That can be found not only at the high level between lithium pricing, supply, and demand, but we've also seen it when you start to look at the various different lithium products. This here is an overlay of spodumene concentrate versus battery-grade lithium carbonate and also battery-grade lithium hydroxide. What you can note is they're different, and they're varied at different points in time. At some moments, carbonate's been priced higher than hydroxide and vice versa. At different times, spodumene concentrate has run ahead of pricing and vice versa. The challenge that presents for our businesses is, frankly, negotiating pricing mechanisms which best reflect the underlying value of the product. Although there has been arbitrage between these products, this has narrowed over time, but there is a level of disparity recently with lithium chemicals pricing.
Hence, the business has continued to evolve pricing mechanisms towards spodumene concentrate pricing, at least of late. But as I say, I just, yeah, remember this variation because part of the challenge we have as a management team is navigating the cycle of behavior where nothing is staying the same. It continues to move. And that's all part of the fun we have in terms of maximizing the value from our product from our customers. Now, moving back to the physicals, this dislocation between underlying physicals balance and pricing is particularly apparent at this point in time. So what we're showing here is this is the supply cost curve care of Benchmark. And that red line that you see through the middle is the prevailing price of lithium chemicals today.
So you can see that there's a large proportion of the supply base is actually got a cost which is higher. So above the red line are supplies, supplies losing money effectively. So I'd put to you that this is unsustainable, and we have to see pricing move. Otherwise, the industry cannot function. And I suspect that we'll see more supply curtailments as we have already been seeing during the course of this year. Now, consensus outlook for pricing is currently $1,400. So effectively, where that line is, imagine doubling the height of that from where it is right now. That's the consensus outlook in terms of long-run average pricing. So you can see we're a long way off that point at this time. So it looks more probable that pricing has to move upwards.
Otherwise, not only will new supply not come to serve this growing market, but these other suppliers will have to fall out of the market because they will not have an economic choice. The other takeaway to draw from the data is, well, what is the supply-demand balance? So that green line is Benchmarks estimate of excess supply. So you can see the area to the right of that green line is excess supply. So there is a level of excess supply, but that has been diminishing during the course of the year. So this is the landscape that we are navigating today. And it's not surprising coming off those very high highs that we saw in 2022 where anyone who had a lithium asset was bringing it to life.
Those who didn't have a lithium asset were on a mad rush to get one to bring it to life. Who wouldn't, given those strong pricing of $8,000 per ton? Now, although we've got this imbalance right now and although pricing is particularly low, the good news is that as it relates to demand, those same structural drivers are there for fostering forward more demand. That being technology, the global energy transition, and those geopolitical forces I mentioned a moment ago. I'll touch on each of these just in brief. What you see here is the battery cell production levels. Those are the columns. You can see it's continuing to move up in steady leaps and bounds. What you can see is from 2015 to 2024. The other piece we've got here is. You can see the green line tracking down.
That is the average cost for a cell, and what has occurred during the course of this year is the cost of a battery cell has moved through a key threshold level being $100 per kWh . Now, why this is a big deal is for a long time, commentators have been talking about the fact that battery costs needed to drop lower if more adoption is going to occur, in particular for buyers to move from internal combustion cars to EVs, so that $100 threshold has now been surpassed, and we're seeing cell costs down at sort of $70 per kWh , plus they're dropping even further, so what does this translate through to, well, it translates through to EV adoption, and that's exactly what we're seeing particularly in the China market, so China's had just an incredible year for EV adoption and more lithium adoption outright.
But as it relates to EVs, this graph shows that inflection which occurred at the start of this year where the relative cost between an internal combustion car and an EV changed sort of through the start of this year around January. So in China, it's now cheaper to buy an EV than an internal combustion car. And what you'd expect with that is a pickup in that EV buying. And that's exactly what we've seen. So the green line that you see moving up is EV penetration. And over the last few months, China has been breaking records in terms of EV sales, not only for China but globally. There's just remarkable uptake at this time. But a key reason for that is this improvement in technology, which is translating through to an improvement in the cost base.
Now, moving beyond those technology developments, as it relates to government support, well, post-COVID, there's been a widespread of government policy support across the Board as governments look to incentivize not only the energy shift but targeting particular changes in the energy shift, most notably for our industry, the adoption of EVs and the displacement and scale down of combustion engines. You can download this from our website and read this at your leisure. This data from Benchmark gives you a lay of the land of some of those incentive schemes which are on foot currently. Now, these technology drivers, government drivers, and just outright adoption is playing through to a steady uptake in lithium demand, and this data really paints that picture. On the right-hand side, you've got the compounding EV sales from 2020 to 2024.
On the left-hand side, you've got the split of lithium demand across end-use markets being portables, EV, and mass energy storage. I'd call out particularly the mass energy storage or the BESS, which is Battery Energy Storage Systems. That is starting to pick up pace, particularly in China. Just to give you a few of the facts here, Rho Motion expects installed grid capacity for 2024 this year to reach 107 GWh , which is a year-on-year increase of 59%. 59% since last year for mass energy storage. Speaking with our customers who have visited the past few weeks, a number of them noted the uptake that they're seeing of battery demand for the demand set. Now, separate to mass energy storage, I mentioned the records being broken in EVs.
Well, just to give you the numbers here, global EV sales for the year to the end of October increased 36% on the prior year. So 36% leap on the prior year. Find me another industry which is compounding that growth rate. And this is a down year. It's just remarkable, remarkable growth rates. And China, this key subset of that demand, year-on-year increase for the same period was 54%. So massive energy storage going up, EV growth is going up, plus there's other signs of more product adoption. So it's the sum of these things which for us gives just further evidence of the fact that lithium has a bright future and one that our company has been preparing for. So what is the forecast? Well, again, courtesy of Benchmark, our friends. We've used a fair bit of their data today. This is their outlook for supply versus demand.
As you can see here, very healthy growth rates in service of those emerging demand segments I mentioned a moment ago. For Pilbara Minerals, we remain focused on looking through these periods of volatility to capitalize on the long-term opportunity this incredible market presents. The strategy we've been pursuing has been designed to navigate this period of volatility and position the business to capitalize on this remarkable market. How we're doing that is being focused on being smart about sustainable growth all the while preserving our strong balance sheet. Now, FY 2024 is a strong illustration of delivery against this strategy, which I'll take you through now. Let me just quickly recap on our mission. Our mission is to be a leader in the provision of sustainable battery materials products.
In the pursuit of this aim, our strategy has been wired against four key priorities that you can see here. Firstly, it's about the operating platform. It is the economic engine of the business. It's what's driving all of the growth and what's paying all of the bills and setting us up for the future. Secondly, it's about growing that operating platform. Thirdly, it's about chemicals integration for the purpose of creating more margin per lithium unit for our shareholders while also getting the benefit of a more structurally integrated, more secure business which can weather these inevitable cycles. Fourthly, it's about diversifying. So diversifying our revenue beyond the Pilgangoora asset. And FY 2024 is an example of us actually taking our first step in that regard. So touching on the highlights for FY 2024, well, we've got a stack of them.
As it relates to the operating platform, record production of 725,000 tons, robust EBITDA margin of 43%, and an ending cash balance of $1.6 billion. This was achieved despite softer lithium pricing. It's a credit to the burning focus on continued cost down and efficiency improvements by the team, and subsequent to the period end, the team secured the revolving credit facility of $1 billion. This is a great outcome which provides more financial flexibility plus lowering our financing costs. Through this facility, we are supported by a stable of top-tier banks, both national and international. Now, securing these banks speaks to the quality of the business, the quality of the asset, and the quality of the team, so well done to Luke Bortoli, our CFO, his team, and the broader business, and these banks, frankly, were clamoring to back us.
It's great to have them supporting Pilbara on this next part of the journey. As Tony will attest, they were not here at the start of Pilbara's journey, but they are now, and good on them for getting onto a good thing. Now, central to the operations has been fantastic project delivery. As it relates to the P680 expansion project, on time and on budget. This delivery was integral in delivering our operating outcomes and cost outcomes. It's a credit to both the ops team and the projects team for working together, managing the inevitable challenges and prevailing. Well done to Brett, Paul Laybourne, who leads the project team. A fantastic set of outcomes. No pressure, but we're looking for the same again this year, which brings me to P1000 project, which is on schedule, on budget.
And if you want to check, please ask Paul after the meeting. I'd appreciate that. But then beyond those expansions which are in flight, there's opportunity to grow further. And during the course of FY 2024, we announced the PFS outcome for what we called the P2000 project. And as the name suggests, it doubles the capacity from where we are today to an outright production output of two million tons per annum. Now, we're able to consider an expansion of that scale, courtesy of that enormous resource that we've grown, being the Pilgangoora asset. So just a phenomenal scale step up if we were to trigger it. But next step for that study is more studies. So we've been busy progressing feasibility study during the December quarter next year. So another year away. A year is a lifetime in the lithium industry.
Meanwhile, we'll get that study completed, and we'll consider that expansion step at that time, and absolutely no problems to defer that. We will time that expansion when it makes sense to do so, obviously considering the market development we were at at that point in time. Now, moving to chemicals, the POSCO joint venture, which Kathleen touched on in her opening, that downstream facility is busy working through commissioning and ramp-up, and it's going very well thus far, so fantastic to see the progress the POSCO team's making, and we are delighted to be a joint venture partner with them. As it relates to the midstream project, construction had started, but we have paused as at the end of the September quarter.
Why we've done that alongside change to the operating model is all for the preservation of cash in the knowledge that we're in this part of the lithium cycle where pricing is low, and we're not sure quite when that trigger may occur. So as a defensive approach, what we have undertaken is a pullback where it makes sense all in service of cash preservation and the knowledge that the market, in our view, ultimately has to turn. And what we're making sure our business is positioned is to weather this part of the cycle such that we can come out stronger. So that is the basis of that pause.
However, we love the idea of recommencing that project at the right time, and we would consider doing that either when the market has improved or if we can get the right levels of support, care of our government partners or other funding support. So we are busy working on that as we speak. Lastly, as it relates to chemicals, during the course of the year, we signed up a study pathway with Ganfeng. Subject to those study outcomes, that would lead to a joint venture together, 50/50 relationship, pursuing a chemical facility somewhere in the world. The reason we partnered with Ganfeng is they are one of the best in the business. They have six operations globally. They have not only one of the largest geographical footprints, they're also one of the largest producers globally, and they're involved in carbonate production, hydroxide production, metals production, and also battery production.
They're an impressive group. As we think about navigating this emerging landscape, partnering with Ganfeng made a lot of sense to combine our intellectual powers to jointly work through the opportunity set of this emerging market. To stress, first step is completion of those studies, which we're pursuing as we speak. Lastly, as it relates to diversification, we have commenced the acquisition process for Latin Resources, a fantastic countercyclical on-strategy transaction, and we are delighted to be merging with Latin, merging the teams, merging the assets. The benefit here is to really build on Pilbara's core capability and transferring our know-how and knowledge into a fantastic region being Minas Gerais in Brazil. Delighted to be partnering with the Latin team. We look forward to that transaction completing, which should be around late January, early February next year.
Moving to sustainability highlights, a bunch in this category as well. So as it relates to our people, most pleasingly, a really big improvement in safety performance for the year, a 27% improvement in TRIFR, dropping from 4.7 to 3.4. Seven new multi-year community partnerships, a fantastic outcome. As it relates to improving on our own sort of core sustainability metrics, we released our power strategy. In fact, the team is well underway with our next step of the energy transition underway with LNG now turned on on site and more to follow in that regard. Beyond that, we commenced our Reconciliation Action Plan work and the actual implementing of that. And meanwhile, we've spent more than $1.5 billion locally care of those expansions. So it's been a very busy year, as you can see, across the business.
Well done to Sandra and her team for helping mature across the Board, across all these fronts. All these fronts, it's a fantastic set of outcomes. Now, I mentioned the pause on midstream. Well, coupled with that was a decision to transition to the P850 model. What this is about, we announced this at the September quarter, is in service of cash preservation. But specifically, what it looks like is of the two operating plants we've got at the mine site, turning off our higher cost processing facility being the Ngungaju operation, which is formerly the Altura operation. We made the decision to turn that off, concentrate our efforts in the larger Pilgangoora operation because the Pilgangoora operation has a lower unit cost. Now, the benefit of that scale back is, firstly, it's a big cash preservation to the tune of AUD 200 million that you can see here.
And it's a relatively modest, by comparison, step back as it relates to volume. And of course, we stand ready to retrigger that operation and bring that back into life when that makes sense, obviously with an outlook to the market. And moving to our customers, this is the spread of customers. And as a major supplier for lithium, we are deeply engaged in the chemical market, and we've deliberately partnered with what we think are the best in the business, the highest quality, strongest partners in the supply chain. Now, these partners are best placed to manage this part of the cycle in our view. Why? Given their history in the industry, their low-cost position, and who they're partnered with. And a number are partnered with, frankly, the top shelf in the industry. This includes Tesla, BYD, Hyundai, to name a few.
Now, of those partners, our strategic partners, POSCO and Ganfeng, we've got longer-term offtakes. And the rest of that group, we effectively signed shorter-dated agreements or extensions at the start of this year. Now, I would call out that of these partners, we are completing the last committed sales for two of these customers, both of which are priced on legacy pricing mechanisms. So these pricing mechanisms have at different times weighed down our average realized price. So next quarter onwards, we're very comfortable that the pricing mechanisms that we'll have across our contracts will appropriately reflect the prevailing market pricing at this moment in time until those underlying price references move yet again. Hence the reason I showed that curve earlier on of the varying carbonate, hydroxide, and spodumene pricing because it does move around.
That's part of the fun we have as a management team is doing the best we can to manage those movements. Just to show those project outcomes, what you see here is the P680 crushing ore sorting facility. As I like to say at every presentation, because it's true, it is the largest of its kind in lithium, and it's the largest mineral processing facility in the southern hemisphere. It's a haul of ore sized for the larger P1000 expansion. It's a beast. It's very impressive. What's great about this is it's a first. It's a first for the industry, and it's Pilbara Minerals leading the way, our team. A great example of Australian innovation and its care of the great work of our team working with TOMRA, who is the vendor for the ore sorters, our construction partners and designers. It's brilliant.
I think this technology and this deployment will become ubiquitous across the industry for the larger hard rock operations. Why I think that will happen is because it enables you to extract more ore from the ore body to improve recoveries through the plant. Both of those factors increase value through getting more lithium out of the ore body, more lithium through the processing, and dropping unit costs. Well done to the team. Great to see that come to life. As it relates to P1000, here it is. It's well into construction and shortly commencing commissioning. During the course of this financial year, we will be bringing that online and ramping that up. Moving to, yeah, quickly on P2000 here, is a layout of what that looks like. I mentioned this is a pre-feasibility study level only at this stage.
Next feasibility study is underway, due for output December quarter next year. And the P2000 is the 3D schematic that you can see sitting alongside the existing processing infrastructure at site. Moving to chemicals, the schematic to the left is our joint venture facility we have with POSCO in Gwangyang-si, South Korea. And we have one of our directors, Steve Scudamore, with John Stanning, is getting on a plane tonight. I think it is John to head over there for a celebration for the next train. So delighted to see that project come to life. And a project which has been in the pipeline for many years, in fact, since early 2018. So the team is making good progress. But of course, it's a difficult time to be bringing on a chemical facility in this market. Now, that brings me to the last plank of our strategy, diversification.
During the course of the year, we've taken the plunge with the transaction with Latin, and absolutely delighted to be taking that step. For near on two and a half years, as a company, we've been talking to the market about wanting to be set up to do the right accretive extension when that made sense. And here it is in the form of the Latin transaction. What we love about the Latin transaction is it ticks every box. Firstly, it's a fantastic asset in terms of what's been found in the ground. It's a fantastic time to be entering, given that post-resource drilling, the team is in the early phase of working out the most appropriate design. So it's a fantastic time for Pilbara to enter to transfer our knowledge into what does that design look like such that we can maximize and make the most of that asset.
And lastly, I think the timing just worked out really well in terms of where the assets are at. So a big thank you to Chris Gale, the MD for Latin, all the Latin team. And one of the key strengths of this transaction is it's a share transaction. It's not a cash transaction. So that's great for both sets of shareholders to not draw cash, use their equity. And for Latin's shareholders, they get to carry on the lithium journey care of one pure play lithium developer being Latin, merging with Pilbara, whom, of course, is a pure play lithium. So a great set of outcomes, a perfect marriage, and we look forward to bringing that online in due course. And lastly for me, and to finish, Pilbara Minerals has navigated an absolutely volatile but rapid rise of the lithium market.
We've done that through focusing on being smart, about being smart about sustainable growth, and all the while preserving our strong balance sheet. We have laid a solid foundation built to withstand the market shifts and capture the immense potential that lies ahead. In the process, we have evolved from a small player to a key player, a leader in lithium. This has been underpinned by a clear strategic plan, operating more efficiently, maximizing the value on our assets through stepwise growth, advancing our chemical capabilities and participation, and lastly, diversifying our revenues and our business across new accretive assets. FY 2024 was a demonstration of discipline delivery across each of these fronts. Now, the world is changing. We are all bearing witness to the adoption of new technologies and the global energy shift.
The lithium industry is but one exciting area that is supporting this shift, albeit it's been a very wild ride. As we look forward, we're excited about the long-term outlook for the industry and the opportunity this presents for our shareholders. However, we remain focused on maintaining our disciplined approach to delivery. We remain grounded, care of our proud history as a young Aussie company that fought its way into this position. Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your continued support. And we look forward to updating in the future. I'll now hand back to Kathleen. Thank you.
Thank you, Dale. I will briefly explain the meeting procedures before we move to the formal business of today's meeting. All voting today will be conducted by way of poll on all resolutions, which I will declare open shortly. If you are eligible to vote, there are two ways you may cast your vote: in person or via the online platform. For those in attendance, you may vote using voting papers, which you were handed when you entered the meeting. When called upon to vote, please do so by marking your voting paper either for, against, or abstain. Your voting papers will be collected prior to the end of the meeting. Any questions on voting for those in attendance, please raise your hand, and Computershare staff will assist. For those voting online, simply press the vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options.
To cast your vote, select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as the vote is automatically recorded. You will receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. If you require any assistance during the meeting, please refer to the online meeting guide, which is available on the online platform or website, or contact Computershare directly. With regard to proxies, these numbers will be displayed on the screen for each resolution. Please note that a number of open proxies have been received for the chairman's discretion, and I advise that I, as chairman, will be directing these in favor of each relevant resolution. Ladies and gentlemen, I now turn to the formal matters to be considered today and declare voting open on all items of business.
I will give you a warning before I move to close voting. Rod Somes from Computershare has agreed to be returning officer today, and following the confirmation by Computershare, final results will be announced to the ASX later today. The questions process for those attending virtually has been explained already. For those in the room, if you wish to ask a question, please raise your hand and wait for the microphone before stating your name for the record. In the interest of time and to allow all attendees an opportunity, you may be limited to asking one question and one follow-up question. The company has released its Notice of Meeting for today's meeting, which can be viewed on the ASX and Pilbara Minerals website, as well as the company's Computershare meeting. I now propose the Notice of Meeting is taken as read.
If there are no objections, I will record the motion as carried. I will now move to the business of the meeting. A summary of the proxy votes is on the screen. The first item of business is to receive and table for consideration the Annual Report, which includes the Financial Report, the Sustainability Report, the Directors' Report, and the Auditor's Report for the financial year ending 30 June 2024. Members should note that the reports are not tabled for approval, but simple discussion. Mr. Derek Meates from the company's auditor, KPMG, is available to answer questions from members in relationship to the conduct of the audit. I now pause to allow shareholders to comment or ask any questions on the Financial Report or the reports of the directors and audit. Also, if there are any general questions on the company following Dale's presentation, we can address those now.
So are there any questions in the room? If you just raise your hand, we'll get you a microphone. Nope? Okay. I might start with some previously submitted questions. So we had some questions from Simon Taylor, director of Taylor Cresswell Pty, on pricing. I think the first question, which is about why is our price what is our price relative to the market, Dale answered. The second question was around the March FY 2024 quarterly activities report. There was a customer pricing adjustment on shipments prior to March due to the continued decline of lithium chemicals price. And the question is, in the event that demand starts to exceed supply and prices rise sharply, are Pilbara Minerals' contract structured that Pilbara Minerals would see this pricing adjustment return to its favor? And the answer is yes.
The second question was, why are the product qualification processes for POSCO JV produced hydroxide taking so long? Is the qualification process independently conducted? So this goes down, I think Dale explained a little bit about the fact that because these are battery-grade metals, there is actually a fairly long qualification process, which for those of us who drive electric cars would hope is a robust process before they get qualified. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Dale.
No. No. It is a long process. We hear some of the quickest is six months, but it's quite often you'll hear from customers taking 12 months.
Okay. Do we have any online questions, Dani?
Yes, we do. We have a question here from Mr. Ryan Evans. If demand keeps compounding at 20% per annum, how long do you expect it will take for existing supply and capacity from mothballed and imminent production to be outstripped by demand? Is this likely a two or three-year horizon or longer?
Yes. This is a crystal ball gazing one-on-one. So a couple of comments here. In terms of the consensus outlook, there's a wide range in terms of the outlook. Some of the more pessimistic are suggesting that it will take to the end of the decade before there is any balance and any potential rally. When I speak to our customers, they think it'll be something much, much sooner. And there is a spectrum of opinions between them. One of the challenges of forecasting is both insight to both supply and demand is incredibly challenging. As it relates to the supply side, what we've seen during the course of the year is significant curtailments to the tune of what we estimate 150,000-200,000 LCE during the course of this year. That equates to approximately 1.5 million tons spodumene equivalent. So that's come out of the system this year.
As it relates to that cost profile I showed, and where 40%-50% is already underwater, there is a real question as to who comes out of the market next or what precipitates a price rally. Now, historically, we've seen price rallies get triggered out of the blue. Maybe that happens. Maybe that doesn't. But this becomes really hard as it relates to supply side. Then it becomes demand. What's going to happen with demand? So as we walk through today, there's just some amazing subsets of demand, whether it's EVs, mass energy stores, that is continuing to compound at healthy growth rates. It's possible that we might see more of that, particularly as other markets open up. But it's incredibly difficult to predict any of that. But for Pilbara, it doesn't faze us at all.
The reason it doesn't faze us is our low-cost position and the fact that we're at the toe of what's an amazing long-run adoption curve.
The next question has come in from Mr. Robert Clark, who's a shareholder. Pilbara Minerals is often described itself as a close follower in adopting green energy solutions. Recently, CATL announced plans to provide turnkey green energy systems aiming to significantly reduce costs with solutions capable of powering large-scale operations like data centers or cities. Given Pilbara's exceptional renewable energy potential and your customers' progress towards 24-hour energy solutions, how might you leverage your customers' advancements to adopt their technologies, and what impact could more affordable decentralized electricity have on your operations?
That's a great question. Probably the first place to start is from inception. Pilbara Minerals has had the objective of becoming a more sustainable operator in every sense, and we are walking that journey as we speak, and some of the milestones I mentioned a moment ago speak to that, whether it's the power strategy that we're deploying and other various steps. We are well underway to decarbonize. However, there's just so much more to be done, and we, alongside all the other miners and many other heavy industry, have the same challenges, and some of those challenges aren't yet solved, but we're up for that, and we're certainly doing what we can to mature through this curve as quickly as we can, and things like the midstream project with Calix, that could be potentially a fantastic decarbonization solution in time.
It's early in its innovation, and there's more to go there. To the part around what can we get out of our customers and can we get some benefit from working with them, we are definitely keen on their help. If they would like to provide green solutions for free, that would be great. Historically, we have actually pushed them on this and said, "Gee, why don't you give us some batteries for free? And why don't you help us out?" They're definitely up for supporting us, but not for free. Interested to see how they go. Everyone has this challenge. I think for the battery materials industry, we appreciate that our whole existence is all about supporting this transition. We have to do a great job, and that's what we're endeavoring to do to decarbonize.
The next question is from Mr. Kenneth McMahon, who's a shareholder. Brine production appears lower cost than spodumene. I am concerned that the buildout of this production will displace spodumene.
As it relates to lithium sources, yeah, there's hard rock, brine, clays, geothermal. There's a number of natural sources for lithium. Now, within each of those categories, there's a spectrum of low-cost, high-quality assets to rubbish assets, so whether it's brine, hard rock, clay, what matters, doesn't matter whether you're brine or hard rock, is to have a high-quality asset at a low-cost position, which is exactly what we have with the Pilgangoora asset and what we will have with the Salinas asset in Brazil, so that is, I guess, the benefit, so it's not so much a case of brines versus hard rock, and what I'd call out is that some of the major lithium groups actually have a foot in both camps, and they've done it for that reason that the world needs plenty of lithium, low-cost lithium is really the focus and the right jurisdictions.
I think we fast forward to the future. My crystal ball shows, as it is today, a spectrum of the higher quality assets, both brine and hard rock, at the left-hand side of the cost curve.
The next question is from Mr. Robert Clark. The Latin Resources acquisition seems well aligned with midstream Calix processing, leveraging cheap renewable power and proximity to a port over 400 km away. How dependent is the development of this resource on securing off-takers in North America and Europe capable of converting your midstream product?
Yeah. Great, great question. And the potential for a Calix calcine or electrified solution in Brazil, and particularly Minas Gerais and the Salinas project, it's a fantastic setting, potentially. Why? Because such a high proportion of the power is hydropower and very low cost. So we're quite excited about the possibility of deploying that technology there. And we will study that and see what we can do in that regard. As it relates to off-take and sourcing buyers, we've got no concerns in that regard. There's a broad base of high-quality buyers from almost every part of the supply chain who continue to pursue Pilbara for supply, whether that's from our Australian asset or now Brazil. Subject to that pending transaction.
The next question, Chairman, is from Mr. Gregory Shaw. PLS is the most shorted stock in the market. Why is PLS doing nothing? USA Company [audio distortion] problems are actively taking legal action on the responsible entities.
Yes, PLS is a well-shorted stock. And our strength is that we are a standalone, high-value lithium business. And the weakness is that that makes us the perfect trading opportunity if you want to speculate about lithium pricing. And so at this stage, there's nothing we can do except continue to deliver. And when the price turns, that will clear through.
Another question here from Mr. Robert Clark. In Rio Tinto's recent takeover of Arcadium, they highlighted the cost advantages of DLE and brine-based lithium production. Beyond scale and the ore sorter, what additional deflationary levers does PLS see as opportunities to further reduce operational costs?
Yeah. Thank you for that question. As it relates to further cost-down levers at the mine site, there is a number which we are progressing and will progress in the future, so firstly, as we go larger, we get the benefit of scale benefit and reduced unit costs, so we will see the benefits of the P1000 next year once we are ramped up in steady state, so there's a benefit there. In the future, we are considering, as it relates to mining, different fleet sizes. There's potential to reduce some costs through there. Outside of that, at port, we are progressing discussions around Lumsden Point, which would enable us to move from Rotainer box outload method, so using Rotainer box to load ships to direct outload conveyor, so there will be cost benefits to come from that.
And then back at the mine site, Brett and his team have an ongoing mission around improving recovery through the plant. And during the course of the year, we've seen a number of those initiatives yield benefits. And there's just more to go. And as we bring to bear our ore petrology work in the mine, the new online analyzers, which are coming with the new plant and the new flotation circuit, the new flotation regimes, all of that will play through to recovery benefits. So some of those things will take us further down the cost curve.
Question from Mr. Philip Lawler. Can you please provide a rationale for pausing the midstream project with Calix, just trying to get some deeper insights into this decision?
Yeah. As mentioned in the presentation, the rationale for pausing that project is just cash preservation. We like the midstream project. It's why we're pursuing it. We think it's got the potential to be a game changer for our company and maybe the industry. And we'd love to see that come back online and deliver that. However, at this point in the cycle, the name of the game is preserving cash, reducing costs. So for that reason, we thought, "Let's pause that." And we did that decision with agreement with Calix, with the view that we bring it back online when either the market improves or we get additional support from the government or another funding source.
Thank you. The next question is from Mr. Christian Silitonga. Can you please explain the different ways you communicate news to shareholders? Sometimes it feels like it's hard to get news.
I will try and do that justice. I've got Sandra here who could speak to that. As it relates to communication to shareholders, I guess, yeah, the things that I would rattle off here, obviously the ASX releases are sort of the basic, and we've kept with the practice of being fulsome in those releases. Separate to that, we've been using a number of online platforms, including LinkedIn and even Instagram for those who like photos. Obviously, not so much content-driven, but more activity-driven, and then outside of that, we've been taking opportunities where we can to make it easy for shareholder engagement, so over the past year, we've actually done a couple of dedicated shareholder events. In fact, I think it was only about two, three weeks ago, we did one in Sydney, and we had a number of our long-standing shareholders.
Prior to that, we did another one in Melbourne, so we've been doing those types of activities, and separate to that, we've got James Fuller, lead IR, head of IR, who fields calls and emails, and he welcomes an email or a reach-out if any shareholder would like to reach out.
Thank you. The Latin transaction is paid for, sorry, this question is from Mr. Kenneth McMahon, who's a shareholder. The Latin transaction is paid for with shares at what price? It appears we are using discounted PLS shares, so therefore paying a relatively higher price.
Yeah. So the details of what we're paid for is part of that disclosure. And the way to think about that purchase is what is the premium for the purchase of the asset? So I'd refer Kenneth to that release. And depending which VWAP, that gives you the markup for the acquisition. But it's not a case of discounting. It's a case of merging the equity.
The ratio of our shares that we're paying does not go up as our share price goes down. It's a set ratio.
Okay. The next question is from Mr. Stephen Mayne, who's a shareholder. Australia is currently in the midst of an unprecedented deluge of takeovers that has contributed to listed entities on the ASX by falling by 7.5% since June 2022. There is a clear mispricing between public markets and private markets. Why are public markets not valuing ASX-listed companies like ours more highly? And what are we doing to avoid being gobbled up like so many other companies? Does the chair agree this is a problem for the nation, particularly with so few new floats replenishing the ASX ranks? Was the CEO surprised by Rio Tinto's recent big takeover move in the lithium space?
So I'm not an economist. Yes, I do think that we need a healthy public market. And I think that there is a disconnect between what's going private and what's going public. I think some of that is regulation. Some of that is access to capital. I think there is an issue in terms of, and there's also an issue of sort of global consolidation, which you would have seen through the Rio Tinto deal. I don't think it surprised anybody, given that Rio Tinto has been clear about their objectives of getting into lithium, that they would do that. And our job is to make sure that we are doing the best job we can to deliver what we say we're going to deliver at the lowest cost.
Thank you. The next question is from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Could the CEO please summarize the extent and breadth of engagement he's had with analysts, brokers, fund managers, and institutional investors after each six-monthly release to the ASX? How does that compare to what the company does for its circa 30,000 retail investors? Also, thank you for offering shareholders a hybrid AGM today, which maximizes retail shareholder participation. Will you commit to maintaining the excellent hybrid AGM model going forward?
So I might start with that and then hand over to you. We take our retail shareholders very seriously, both with the AGM and the number of retail shareholder events that we've had, because I think it's important that not just institutional shareholders get the opportunity to access, get access to management, and get access to having conversations. So the AGM is one form of that. And we will continue to do that as a hybrid. And with that, I might turn over to Dale for a bit more detail on the other part of the question.
Yeah. Just to add, we've had a very busy year of investor engagement, both retail and in stores. I mentioned a moment ago the couple of dedicated retail events that we did, both Sydney and Melbourne. Outside of that, as it relates to institutional engagement, as much as possible, we've tried to just work in with particular conferences more just for the optimization of time. But separate to all of that, of course, we're doing what we can in terms of thorough and detailed disclosures on the ASX.
There are no further online questions.
Okay. Thank you for that. So we'll now move to Resolution 1. Resolution 1 relates to the Remuneration Report, which is included as part of the Directors' Report that can be found on page 108 of the company's 2024 Annual Report. Voting on the adoption of the Rem report is for advisory purposes only. The resolution and proxy votes received on this resolution are displayed on the screen. I now invite shareholders to comment on or ask questions they may have on Resolution 1. Any questions? Dani, are there any questions online?
Yes. We have received one question on Resolution 1 from Mr. Stephen Mayne. This question has been shortened and summarized slightly for length. Best practice is now to disclose the proxy position to the ASX along with the formal addresses to offer more timely disclosure to the market. Will you adopt this practice at next year's AGM? Were there any protest votes against the Remuneration Report? And if so, what concerns were raised?
So we review best practice on a regular basis. And the proxy reports are actually a commercial relationship between the proxy advisors and the institutional shareholders. They're not our public property to provide.
There are no further questions.
Thank you. I will now put the resolution to the meeting. If you haven't done so, you may now cast your vote on this item. I will move to the next item of the business. I refer you to Resolution 2 of the Notice of Meeting, which relates to my election as director. As I have an interest in this resolution, I will pass the chair to my fellow director, Mr. Steve Scudamore.
Thank you, Kathleen. Kathleen retires and offers herself for election. Her details are set out in the Explanatory Memorandum and Annual Report. The resolution and proxy notes are displayed on the screen. I will now invite Kathleen to say a few words on her proposed election.
Thank you, Steve. And thank you for allowing me to present myself for election. I'm honored to be selected as your Chairman late last year. Tony's obviously a tough act to follow. In the last year, I've had the chance to get to know your company and the management team well. And as I said in my opening remarks, I'm very impressed and excited by your company. I bring to Pilbara Minerals 20 years of global Board experience, most recently Chairman of Lynas Rare Earths. My broad Board experience across a range of high-growth industries and complex global businesses gives me insight into the strategic challenges facing the lithium industry and Pilbara Minerals. My 12 years at Lynas Rare Earths, a fellow homegrown critical minerals business, has given me valuable experience in scaling a new industry.
I'm a strong advocate for excellent governance and transparency, as evidenced by my various roles at the AICD, including my current role as Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee. I believe that my 20 years of Board experience and 40 years of global experience, strategic background, supply chain, digital, and manufacturing transformation have already allowed me to make substantial contributions in the time I've been on the Board and will allow me to lead this business through the cycle and future growth phases. I'm honored to submit myself to you for election and appreciate your support.
Thank you, Kathleen. I'd just like to say that Kathleen has the unanimous support of the directors for her reappointment and also continuing as Chairman of the Board. As you've heard, she's got a wealth of experience with top ASX-listed companies and in mining and governance, and she's taken on the role with great enthusiasm and has proven to be an exceptional choice as our Chairman. She has worked particularly well strategically with both the Board and the Managing Director, Dale, so I now invite shareholders to comment or ask any questions that they may have on the resolution to elect Ms. Conlon, and Dani, have you got any questions? Are there any questions in the room, and have we any questions online?
We do have a question from Mr. Stephen Mayne.
All right.
Could you please comment? Sorry, this has been shortened slightly for length. Could you please comment on the search process for the new Chair and how the recruitment process was handled that led us to going outside the existing directors to find a new Chair? Which headhunter was involved? What role did the former Chair play? And did the full Board interview any other Chair candidates? And lastly, was Kathleen's long service on the Board of global poker machine giant Aristocrat Leisure considered as a negative screen from an ESG perspective? And did Kathleen know any of our other directors before engaging with the recruitment process?
There's only about six questions there, but I'll try and remember each of them and answer as best I can. Yes, we did go through a recruitment process. We went through a two- to three-month recruitment process. And that was led by Nick Cernotta, our Chair of our People and Culture Committee, joined by Sally- Anne as Chair of our Sustainability Committee. We considered several but engaged with one reputable executive recruitment company to execute a nationwide search based on predetermined Board-approved profile and selection criteria, including but not limited to strategic leadership and skill-based attributes and experience that were considered important for our future challenges and growth trajectory.
After various iterations involving desktop reviews, expressions of interest from shortlisted candidates, reference checking, and finally, full Board interviews with a formidable list of four preferred candidates, the Board was unanimous in choosing Kathleen, who, as we've previously said and you have heard, has an outstanding and proven exceptional background. And our choice has worked strategically for us so far. Other parts of the question again?
Would you like to comment on the Board's thoughts on her previous long service with Aristocrat Leisure?
I think we're looking at the overall position and the skills that we needed, and I think with skills such as the Lynas involvement in mining and the fact she was Chair of that organization became more important to us in looking at the skills we needed for our company going forward. Okay. Are there any other questions online? No? Okay. As we've got no further questions, I put the resolution to the meeting, and if you haven't already done so, please now cast your vote on this item. On that note, I'll hand back to Kathleen to continue with the meeting.
Thank you very much. I refer you to Resolution 3 of the Notice of Meeting, which relates to the reelection of Ms. Miriam Stanborough as Director. Miriam retires by rotation and offers herself for reelection. Her details are set out in the Explanatory Memorandum and the annual report. The resolution and proxy votes received are displayed on the screen. And I would now like to invite Miriam to say a few words.
Thank you, Kathleen. It's an honor to stand for reelection to the Board of Pilbara Minerals. I've been a Director on this Board since 2021. And I sit on the Audit and Risk and Sustainability Committees. I'm a chemical engineer with minerals processing experience in commodities including copper, uranium, gold, silver, aluminum, and mineral sands. I also bring a background in innovation and technology, technical development, and business improvement. Through my chairmanship of the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia, I have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the Australian mining industry, which I bring to the Board, along with the knowledge of government relations and ESG matters, including decarbonization, the critical mineral supply chain, community relations, and diversity and inclusion. I have a strong focus on workplace safety honed from my time in frontline operational roles in large and complex chemical processing plants.
I would be delighted to continue to represent you as a Director of this great company, a real Western Australian success story. I take the responsibilities of being a director very seriously, including the need to balance responsible oversight with the provision of support for management to deliver on the strategic ambition for our company, while always maintaining high levels of professionalism and transparency. I am personally passionate about the energy transition as a means to respond to climate change and the opportunity this affords your company to play a meaningful role in this global shift. Thank you.
Thank you, Miriam. The Board unanimously supports Miriam's election. And I've found her to be an incredibly high-quality contributor to the Board. So I'd now like to invite shareholders to comment or ask any questions they have on the resolution to reelect Ms. Stanborough. Any questions in the room? Dani, do we have any questions online?
Yes. We have one question from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Could you please advise the ASX how many of our shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement?
Thank you for that question. And we'll take that under advisement for next year. Are there any other questions?
No further questions.
Thank you. With no further questions, I put the resolution to the meeting. If you've not already done so, please now cast your vote on this item. I will now move to the next item of business. Resolution 4 and Resolution 5 of the Notice of Meeting relate to the proposed issuance of long-term performance incentives for Dale Henderson. Given that these resolutions are both related to the issue of long-term performance incentives for Dale, I will review both resolutions and then take questions collectively. I refer you to Resolution 4 of the Notice of Meeting, which relates to the issue of additional FY 2024 LTI performance rights to Mr. Dale Henderson. Full details of these are set out in the Explanatory Meeting, including noting that at last year's Annual General Meeting, shareholders approved the issue of the LTIs in the form of the performance rights.
The performance rights issued following the 2023 Annual General Meeting were calculated based on Mr. Henderson's fixed remuneration at the time. Subsequent to the AGM and as disclosed to the market during December 2023, the Board approved an adjustment to Mr. Henderson's fixed remuneration, and accordingly, it is proposed that additional grant of FY 2024 LTI performance rights are issued to Mr. Henderson. The additional grant was noted within the Notice of Meeting for 2023 and was also addressed further within the Explanatory Memorandum for this meeting. For clarity, the proposed additional FY 2024 LTI performance rights will be subject to the same terms and conditions and were calculated using the same face value as the existing FY 2024 LTI performance rights on issue. The resolution and proxy votes received are displayed on the screen.
Resolution 5 of the Notice of Meeting relates to the approval of the issue of FY 2025 LTI performance rights to Mr. Dale Henderson under the Employee Award Plan. Full details of these are set out in the Explanatory Memorandum, including the performance hurdles that apply to these performance rights. Approval of this Resolution does not mean that the performance rights will automatically convert to shares. The conversion to shares depends entirely on Dale meeting the performance hurdles and the vesting conditions within the three-year performance period. The performance vesting conditions of the employee performance rights are weighted 40% towards relative total TSR against a peer group of ASX 100, 35% relative TSR against a peer group of resources companies, and 25% towards a sustainability target relating to the delivery of Stage 1 of the company's power strategy.
There's also a service condition that he remains employed with the company during the vesting period. The resolution and proxy votes are displayed on the screen. I will now invite shareholders to comment on or ask any questions that may have on either Resolution 4 or Resolution 5 to issue LTI performance rights to Mr. Dale Henderson. Any questions in the room? Dani, do we have any questions online?
Yes. We have one question online in regard to Resolution 5 from Mr. Stephen Mayne. Could the CEO summarize his past LTI grants as to whether they have vested or lapsed? Also, has he ever sold any ordinary shares in the company or bought any on market without relying on an incentive scheme to build his equity position in the company?
I'll respond to that. Dale's LTI is vested 66.5% in FY 2022, 100% in FY 2023, and 100% in FY 2024, and under our shareholder requirements, he has a shareholding requirement that he's built through the LTI. Are there any other questions?
No further questions online.
Excellent. I will now put the resolution to the meeting. If you've not already done so, please cast your vote on these items. If there are no more questions, that concludes all of the resolutions to be put to the meeting. I ask that all shareholders complete their voting before I close the poll. For those online, please ensure that you've completed your voting on all resolutions. I will now pause to allow that to occur. I now take it that all shareholders have voted and declare the poll closed. For those in attendance, Computershare representatives will now walk around the room and collect the green voting papers. Should you require any assistance, please raise your hand. Computershare will now proceed with counting the poll and collating results.
Details of the results of the meeting will be posted on both the company's website and on the ASX company announcement platform as soon as practicable. I'd like to formally thank you for all of your attendance and participation in the meeting. That includes the business for today's meeting, and I declare the meeting closed. For those in the room, please join us for some refreshments in the foyer.