The Galaxy Resources Limited (ASX: GXY) share price could slide in early trade this morning after the company provided an update on its planned Mt Cattlin shipment in Q2 2019.
What did Galaxy announce yesterday?
In its latest ASX announcement after market close yesterday, Galaxy said that a planned shipment of 15,000 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of lithium in Q2 2019 will now form part of the shipment scheduled for July 2019.
The shipment, from the company's Mt Cattlin site, was to be the third shipment of the quarter following the completion of two prior shipments for a total of 30,000dmt.
Galaxy is a leading lithium producer in the S8P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO) index and currently has commercial interests across Argentina, Canada and Australia.
The Mt Cattlin spodumene project is located in resource-rich Western Australia, where Galaxy is currently mining pegmatite ore and processing on-site to produce a spodumene concentrate to on-sell.
What else has been happening for Galaxy in 2019?
The Galaxy share price has nearly halved in 2019, falling 42.5% so far this year to $1.26 per share at yesterday's close.
Galaxy hasn't been the only lithium stock to take a beating in 2019, with the likes of Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) seeing its share price plummet 43.6% to just $0.84 per share as the floor has fallen out underneath global commodities prices.
Lithium traditionally follows a "boom-or-bust" pricing structure, with the high prices of 2016 seeing the share price hit $6.27 and Galaxy climb as high as $4.24 per share prior to the decline of the last 12–24 months.
The recent decision by the London Metals Exchange (LME) to offer lithium contracts has been met with criticism from some of the biggest players in the market, given the potential to invite more speculators into an already-volatile pricing market.
While lithium has been hit hard in 2019, the China-led iron ore rebound has seen the prices of blue-chip miners such as BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) climb 22.2% higher to lead domestic equities to a near-record first half of the year.
