Liontown’s fully underground Kathleen Valley: design and risk notes for mine engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Liontown Resources has completed three years of open pit mining at its Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia and is now transitioning fully to underground operations. The mine is shifting to long-term underground production targeting high-grade spodumene beneath the existing pits, supported by the Dragonfly accommodation village constructed to house the expanded workforce. The move concentrates activity on deeper ore zones, with implications for ground control, ventilation design and paste backfill planning in a hard-rock lithium setting.
Technical Brief
- Village design concentrates beds near the mine, reducing commute times and fatigue-related safety risk.
- Onsite camp services (catering, recreation, medical) support continuous underground rostering and extended shift patterns.
- Transition away from pits reduces surface disturbance footprint, concentrating activity within existing mining lease boundaries.
- Surface infrastructure and haulage routes can now be re-optimised for underground ore handling and waste management.
- Change in workforce profile shifts emphasis from open-pit operators to underground miners, engineers and maintenance trades.
- Concentrated underground activity will drive higher demand for site power, water supply and emergency egress capacity.
Our Take
Recent offtake deals from the Kathleen Valley lithium project with Canmax Technologies, LG Energy Solution, Tesla and Ford suggest Liontown is positioning the WA operation as a long-life, Tier 1 underground supply base rather than a short-cycle open-pit play.
Moving fully underground at Kathleen Valley in Western Australia will likely sharpen Liontown’s cost and scheduling discipline, as underground hard‑rock lithium mines in our database typically face tighter geotechnical and ventilation constraints but enjoy better long-term ore selectivity.
The appointment of a first Tjiwarl community apprentice at Kathleen Valley indicates Liontown is building a structured local workforce pipeline, which can materially de‑risk underground ramp‑up in remote WA compared with fly‑in fly‑out heavy reliance alone.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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