To commence this afternoon's session, I am very pleased to be able to introduce the Managing Director and CEO of Pilbara Minerals, Dale Henderson. Dale joined PLS in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer and became MD and CEO in 2022. Dale is an experienced mining executive with a strong track record of delivering positive financial outcomes for resource businesses and complex operations. He has played an instrumental role in leading Pilbara from project developer to an ASX 100 company operating the largest independent hard rock lithium operation in the world. Over to you, Dale.
Thank you, Courtney, and thank you, Diggers, for having us back. Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be back in Kalgoorlie amongst industry friends, peers, long-time supporters, and most importantly, to our shareholders. Now, many of you will know the PLS story, but for those who don't, just a quick recap. Founded in 2013 by five geologists who went to uni together, funded in 2017 through a $100 million Nordic Bond offshore, built in 2018, and then we hit our first lithium winter in 2019. At that time, we almost froze to death, but the cycle turned. Post-COVID stimulus and soaring EV demand sparked a lithium spring, a season of bounty, glorious, you might say. As night follows day, the cycle turned again. Prices fell sharply through 2023 and into early 2025, and here we are. The chill this time is sharp, but this winter is different for PLS.
We didn't just face into the storm; we've advanced through it. The lessons from the last downturn have shaped our choices, and when prices were very high, what we did was we reinvested back into the operations to reduce costs and increase flexibility. We preserved our fortress balance sheet, and we steered clear of the M&A frenzy, avoiding expensive acquisitions at the top of the market. In short, we prepared for this period. We stayed disciplined and FY 2025 while it all came together. It's a story of discipline, preparation, and execution, and it's played out across every part of our business. Today, I'll share our perspective on the market, our response to its challenges, and how we're positioned for what comes next. To begin with, let me show you what FY 2025 looked like. For PLS, it was a landmark year.
We exceeded all metrics guidance on every metric across production, costs, and CapEx. We completed our multi-year investment cycle, delivering a step change in production capacity and processing power, and now set a new benchmark in hard rock lithium processing capability. We grew our resource base locally and internationally. At home in Pilgangoora, we further extended our lead. It's one of the largest and highest quality hard rock operations, was an extension of that resource, and we expanded offshore, securing our first international asset in Brazil. All the while, we maintained our fortress balance sheet, closing the year with approximately $1 billion in cash. These outcomes didn't happen by chance. They were the result of deliberate and sometimes difficult decisions, including reconfiguring the operation and saying goodbye to loyal employees who have helped build our foundation of success.
It wasn't easy, but it was necessary to make PLS stronger, more resilient, and better positioned for the long game. These outcomes reflect a disciplined, value-focused strategy designed for volatile markets and for the long game. Taken together, FY 2025 wasn't just the strongest year, it was a transformational one. Now, with the market reset underway, strategic optionality matters more than ever, and that's exactly what our extended global footprint provides. At the center is Pilgangoora, a Tier 1 asset now fully transformed, delivering scale, lower cost, and flexibility. From Pilgangoora, we supply a diverse portfolio of Tier 1 chemical converters across Asia, reinforcing deep and long-standing customer relationships. In Brazil, we've established a strategic beachhead at Colina, in the emerging lithium province of Minas Gerais. This positions us to serve the Atlantic Basin with reach both into Europe, North America, and locally, being the growing domestic market in Brazil.
Our JV with POSCO adds another dimension: downstream chemicals, ex-China positioning, and access to one of the few fully integrated battery ecosystems outside of China. It's worth underscoring, PLS remains the world's largest independent hard rock lithium producer. Scale matters, but independence matters more. It gives us flexibility, agility, and control, a competitive advantage few can match. Now, moving to the lithium market. The lithium market, it's volatile, fast-moving, occasionally irrational, but one thing remains clear: demand is not going away. We're living through a generational industrial shift, a global transition from piped energy to wired energy and technological change. It's one of the most profound transformations in modern economic history, but it's a wild ride. The lithium market is still young and taking shape, nascent, unpredictable, and at times disconnected from the fundamentals.
Over the past year, we've seen pricing fall well below industry's cost base, capital tighten, more projects shelved or delayed, and supply contracting further. This is all part of a broader market reset. While there are now signs that the lithium winter may be thawing, volatility still remains high and visibility remains limited. That's normal for an emerging market. It's exactly why scale, balance sheet strength, and strategic optionality, the foundations that PLS has deliberately built, matter more now than ever. This is the slide I want you to remember because it captures the central tension defining this moment for the lithium industry. The very top line is their long-run expectations for the average price for the industry, Korea benchmark. The two lower lateral lines are the headline pricing for lithium chemicals for both late June and late July, respectively.
As you can see, pricing remains well below breakeven for much of the global lithium supply base, even with the recent price uptick. It's not sustainable, and the impact is being felt through production cuts, delayed expansions, and capital is retreating from the sector. Meanwhile, demand continues to grow. Electrification isn't slowing; if anything, it's broadening across mobility, energy storage, and even now, next-generation technologies like AI. This is the lithium paradox. On the one hand, we've got market pain, prices being too low and unsustainable to support the current industry, let alone invest in the future industry. That's the market pain. On the other side, that's the strategic gain for those who are ready and able to respond. PLS is one of those companies. We've built the scale, the cost base, and the balance sheet to withstand the trough and thrive in the recovery.
As prices rise, we're positioned to capture margin, not chase it. We've seen this before too. During the last cycle, our shareholders were handsomely rewarded through the upcycle. This time, our leverage is even stronger, with nearly double the production capacity we had then. No one can precisely time the turn, but when it comes, we're ready because the demand is real and the long game is only just beginning. Let me show you why. The demand story remains robust, and it's accelerating across multiple fronts. 5 million EVs sold in the second quarter of this calendar year, a 28% increase year- on- year. In China, the world's largest auto market, EV penetration exceeded 50% across May and June, with year-to-date sales up 33%. I just ask you to think about EV sales are meant to go down this year. It's been quite the opposite.
As it relates to energy storage, it's surged 46% year- on- year across the first half of this calendar year. It is the sleeping giant, it's awakening. Then separate to that, more broadly, the global cleantech investment is forecast to reach $2.2 trillion this calendar year. These aren't one-off spikes. This is structural, durable growth playing out in real time. Importantly, it's not just cars anymore. Cleantech is expanding into heavy industry, grid resilience, AI infrastructure, and more. The electrification wave is building. What comes next could potentially stretch the lithium supply chain further more than anything we've ever seen before. We're entering potentially another wave of lithium demand, and it's coming fast, albeit it's in its infancy. Think AI and robotics, grid scale energy storage, vertical e-mobility like eVTOLs or flying cars. They aren't distant possibilities. They're arriving now.
You may have seen the robot half marathon earlier this year. This is not science fiction. This was a real event held in Hong Kong. It featured over 20 two-legged robots competing with 12,000 humans. Battery swaps were allowed, but they came with time penalties. The winning robot clocked 2 hours and 40 minutes, which I reckon that's not bad for a humanoid. This little guy didn't do well. I think he's complaining about his shin splints or running shoes like any good runner, but good on him. There's the Jetsons moment. Flying cars are progressing to commercial deployment in Thailand and China. Yes, one of them has been promoted by, sorry, yeah, here's the eVTOLs here. One of them has been promoted by a well-known influencer. I don't know if he actually helped or hurt the marketing campaign.
I think it looks like he hurt the marketing campaign with that one. The bottom line is it's no longer just an EV story. It's an energy story, a mobility story, a technology story, and lithium is at its center of all of it. That's why we're not just riding the cycle. We're positioning for beyond it, scaling up, diversifying our platform, and positioning PLS to serve what we think is a multi-decade wave of demand. For PLS, FY 2025 wasn't just a year of change. It was a year of disciplined delivery. Our team delivered with conviction. Operationally, record production, unit costs dropped 10% quarter- on- quarter, and P1000 was commissioned, optimized, and brought online, setting a new benchmark for hard rock lithium processing. We also established a $1 billion RCF facility, reinforcing the balance sheet. Strategically, we entered lithium hydroxide production via our JV with POSCO in South Korea.
We've also expanded globally, securing our first offshore asset in Brazil in the premium mining jurisdiction of Minas Gerais. These results were not delivered in calm conditions, not at all. This performance was delivered under pressure, and it speaks volumes to the maturity, resilience, and capability of our team. We haven't wasted this part of the cycle. We've used it to fortify our foundations, expand the operating platform, and position PLS for what comes next. At the center of that delivery is Pilgangoora. It's the engine room of our growth, the platform behind our strategic reach, and an asset we've continued to enhance. In FY 2025, it wasn't just about performance that improved. The asset itself became even stronger. Pilgangoora has been upgraded again. Total resource is now 446 million tons, a 23% increase in contained lithium, and an improvement in grade.
This milestone reinforces our position as a Tier 1 operator. Once converted to reserve, it's expected to deliver even greater mine longevity. It's not just about size. It's about how we extract value. This year, we ramped up the largest whole-of-ore lithium sorter in the world. It's a first-of-its-kind deployment at this scale, redefining hard rock lithium processing. Why does it matter? It enables us to capture a higher volume of ore from the ore body and to achieve higher lithium recoveries. These two in combination lead to lower unit costs and potentially a longer mine life. That's shareholder value creation in action. Let me show you what it looks like for a short video. There's a shot of the mine initially. I draw your attention to the wall at the back. You can see the white being the ore against the black host rock.
Of course, drill and blast, but that white versus black host rock, that's the challenge around extracting ore efficiently and being able to capture all the ore from the ore body. Hence, cue the ore sorter. That's really the first benefit. The ore sorter helps us capture more of the ore out of the ore body. Then it helps clean it further to improve recoveries. What you see here is the ore sorter in action, discriminating ore from non-ore using two different methods of determination. That really is the secret sauce. As I say, it's not being done at this scale. Here's a quick shot of the P1000. Here we have product flying out the back, heading out to happy customers throughout Asia. It's timely for me just to say a big thank you to the team at PLS .
The P1000 expansion was an enormous brownfields expansion delivered this year very successfully in what was a very tough market backdrop. It was delivered on time, under budget, and ramped up successfully. Full credit to Brett McFadden and the full operating team, Paul Laybourne, who leads the projects team, and the full and broader PLS team. It's been an incredible year delivering what is just a game-changing platform of infrastructure, which has been delivered this year. Well done, team. Now, moving to chemicals, FY 2025 marked a major milestone for PLS , where we became a lithium hydroxide producer, care of our joint venture together with POSCO. It's a vision we've held since 2018, and this year, it came to life. Both trains are now operating to specification and producing battery-grade material. They're both being progressively ramped up. Our minority stake delivers several key strategic benefits.
Firstly, it's about diversification outright and into one of the only lithium ecosystem hubs outside of China. It also provides supply chain resilience. Over time, it's got the potential to capture more margin from downstream chemicals production. This is an investment not just in chemicals, but in strategic positioning. From South Korea to Brazil, we're building a truly global lithium platform. POSCO provides chemical and ecosystem depth. Colina and Brazil provide geographic diversification and growth potential. Together, they will contribute to the next chapter of PLS , a company positioned to lead across the lithium value chain. As I mentioned, Colina offers long-term strategic optionality and the potential to become a second Tier 1 asset for PLS , as compelling geology with early signs of scale and quality. It's an Atlantic-facing location, enabling reach into not only Europe, but also North America and across the local market.
This was a countercyclical script acquisition, one that preserved capital while extending our global platform. Colina is more than an asset. It's a partnership. We were proud to welcome an exceptional Brazilian team into the PLS family, a group whose capability, energy, and local insight are already shaping Colina's next phase. We're building on the strong foundations they've laid together. As the year ahead, targeted drilling and study work is underway, focused on growing the resource and progressing development with discipline, albeit appropriately staged given the market backdrop. Colina reflects the essence of our strategy in this part of the cycle. It's about investment with discipline, building optionality, and positioning for growth for when the market is ready. With that, let's turn to the year ahead. In FY 2026, our focus shifts to realizing the full value of what we've built. The foundations are in place.
Now it's about delivering, optimizing, and advancing with discipline. Our priorities are clear. Drive strong operational performance across the Pilgangoora platform with a sharp focus on volume, lifting lithium recoveries, and reducing our unit cost even further. Secondly, it's about advancing our growth options prudently with measured increments delivered with discipline. Thirdly, it's about supporting our downstream exposures and JV involvement. Lastly, it's about strategic partnerships, maintaining long-term premium-aligned relationships with the best in the business. The path forward is clear. Focused investment, disciplined execution positioned for the rise. That brings me to my final comments. We are living through an extraordinary moment in history. The lithium industry is expanding rapidly, powering one of the greatest industrial transformations of our time. The shift from piped energy to wired energy is reshaping markets, supply chains, and industries.
Yes, it's volatile, but it's also exciting, and its direction is unmistakable. PLS has emerged in service of this change, a young industry still finding its form. We've had to forge our own path using the cycle as leverage, not as a limitation. We've invested in our operations when prices are high. We've preserved our balance sheet when others stretched, and we've stayed true to our strategy even when our conviction was tested. Those decisions made with discipline, not hype, all came together in FY 2025. Today, we stand stronger with more scale, a lower cost, more resilient platform, and greater strategic reach than ever before. Above all else, we have our great people. Their capability, conviction, and culture have carried us forward, and they will take us further still.
We've advanced through the storm, and now we're positioned not just to rise with the cycle, but to help shape its future. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Dale.