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As of March 2025, the mine has a workforce of more than 1,700 people.

The Greenbushes Lithium Mine is undergoing a significant expansion to meet global lithium demand. Lithium minerals have been produced at Greenbushes since 1983, with tin mining commencing in 1888. The mine has a projected mine life of 22 years based on the ore reserve as of May 2025.

Production overview - 2025: lithium 1400000 t; 2024: lithium 1420000 t.

The operation has four processing plants: Chemical Grade Plant 1 (CGP1), Chemical Grade Plant 2 (CGP2), a Tailings Retreatment Plant (TRP), and a Technical Grade Plant. The processing method involves upgrading the lithium mineral (spodumene) using gravity, heavy media, flotation, and magnetic processes. The commissioning of Chemical Grade Plant 3 (CGP3) commenced on 18 December 2025, with first ore processed. CGP3 has a capacity of approximately 500,000 tonnes per annum of spodumene concentrate, increasing the total site capacity to around 2.1 million tonnes per annum.

Mining is a conventional drill and blast, truck and shovel/loader operation. The load and haul activities are carried out by contractor Macmahon Holdings. A contractor, Peel Resource Recovery, has utilised a jaw crusher, impact crusher, screener, D10 dozer, 980 loader, a 36-tonne excavator, and an 18m radial stacker for crushing and screening operations.

The mine is undergoing a significant expansion to meet global lithium demand. This includes the construction of new waste rock landforms, expanded water storage capacity, and supporting infrastructure. The expansion has a total footprint of 600 hectares, with 435 hectares outside the previous development envelope. The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority has given approval for the updated proposal, which increases the development envelope to 2,791 hectares.

The project is at an exploration stage. Encounter Resources Limited holds 100% ownership of the Yeneena Copper Project. IGO Limited has withdrawn from the farm-in and joint venture agreement.

Production overview - 2025: copper 14 kt.

Processing methods are not yet established as the project is in the exploration phase.

Exploration activities involve aircore and diamond drilling rigs.

Encounter Resources is assessing significant technical datasets to refine and prioritise the next phase of exploration. This includes evaluating the potential for depth extensions to the high-grade copper oxide discovery at the Tyrell Prospect (formerly BM1) and drill testing the large copper leakage anomaly at the Haddon prospect (formerly BM5). A 6-hole RC drill program at the BM5 prospect was scheduled for October 2025. Further drill testing of target areas within the Parbo copper system is planned for the 2026 field season.

The mine has been producing lithium concentrates since 1983. An updated Ore Reserve Estimate as of 31 December 2025, for the open-pit hard-rock, is 176 million tonnes at 1.9% Li₂O.

Production overview - 2024: lithium 1383000 t.

The operation includes four processing plants: three that produce chemical-grade lithium concentrates (CGP1, CGP2, and a Tailings Retreatment Plant) and one that produces technical-grade lithium concentrates (TGP). A third chemical-grade plant, CGP3, commenced construction in 2023 and processed its first ore in December 2025. The addition of CGP3 is expected to increase the total production capacity to approximately 2.1 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate per year.

A significant expansion is underway with the commissioning of the third Chemical Grade Plant (CGP3). A new underground Mineral Resource Estimate has been defined, indicating the potential for future underground mining operations to complement the existing open pit. A Strategic Options Review is in progress to optimise the life of mine plan.

IGO Limited announced on 30 March 2026 that it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire the remaining 49% joint venture interest in the Copper Wolf Project, giving it 100% ownership. A targeted drilling program is planned for the first half of 2027 to inform the next steps for the project. The project is located in a prolific porphyry copper belt. Previous exploration has confirmed porphyry-style mineralisation. Drilling in 2023 at the Bobcat prospect returned an intersection of 405 metres at 0.35% copper and 0.05% molybdenum. Another drill hole in 2023 returned 83.76 metres at 0.4% copper and 0.06% molybdenum. The project is considered to have potential for a large, mineralised porphyry copper-molybdenum system. Buxton Resources, the previous joint venture partner, was targeting high-grade, underground bulk mineable copper-molybdenum mineralisation. The mineralisation is a Laramide-age porphyry system, largely concealed by a post-mineral sequence of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The project has not seen any drilling since the early 1990s, prior to the recent exploration campaigns.

Prior to being placed on care and maintenance, it was understood that about 400 contractors and IGO workers were employed at the mine. One of the mining contractors, Perenti's subsidiary Barminco, employed around 179 people at the operation.

The Cosmos Project is located 30km north of Leinster in Western Australia.

Production overview - 2024: nickel 18200 t.

The processing plant was upgraded to a capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per annum. The plant includes new primary, secondary, and tertiary crushing and screening circuits, refurbished mills, new and refurbished flotation cells, and new thickeners and filters. During a brief operational period in FY24, the plant achieved an instantaneous processing rate of 1.1Mt/a during commissioning.

IGO Limited acquired the Cosmos Project through its acquisition of Western Areas in June 2022. In January 2024, IGO announced the decision to transition the Cosmos Project into care and maintenance due to a combination of factors including a reduction in the expected mine life, delays in reaching full capacity, increased operating and capital costs, and a significant deterioration in commodity prices. The transition to care and maintenance was concluded by 31 May 2024. IGO intends to maintain the option to restart Cosmos in the future if market conditions improve. A study into the feasibility of an all-electric underground fleet, including 65-tonne battery-electric trucks, was completed and showed it could be competitive with a diesel fleet.

As of 2024, Hecla Greens Creek Mining Company employed approximately 512 people.

Production overview - 2025: silver 8700000 oz, gold 59349 oz; 2024: silver 8500000 oz, gold 55275 oz.

The mine uses a conventional flotation concentrator that produces a gravity gold concentrate, a silver concentrate, a zinc concentrate, and a precious metals concentrate. The ore is ground and processed by flotation to produce concentrates of lead and zinc with smaller amounts of silver and gold.

The Greens Creek Surface Exploration Project completed its federal permitting in January 2026, allowing for surface exploration to identify new mineral deposits. In 2024, 46% of tailings were reused as backfill. The company is also studying the potential for recovering and re-processing critical minerals from the mine's tailings, which include silver, gold, zinc, lead, copper, nickel, arsenic, barium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, gallium, germanium, manganese, and vanadium.

Over 6,800 full-time employees, with over 90% being Congolese nationals.

Production overview - 2025: copper 388838 t; 2024: copper 420040 t.

The complex uses Phase 1, 2, and 3 concentrators. The processing method involves flotation, with an average recovery of 87.4% in 2023. A new on-site direct-to-blister flash smelter, the largest in Africa with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per annum of 99+%-pure blister copper anodes, commenced heat-up on 21 November 2025 and produced its first anodes on 29 December 2025. The smelter is designed to produce high-strength sulphuric acid as a by-product. An initiative, "Project 95", is underway to increase overall metallurgical copper recoveries to 95% by re-treating tailings.

The Phase 3 concentrator achieved its first concentrate production on 10 June 2024 and reached commercial production in the third quarter of 2024. A 2023 Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) evaluates a staged increase in production to a total of 19.2 Mtpa by 2030. A 2023 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) outlines a nine-year mine life extension to the 33 years defined in the PFS, through the development of four new underground mines (Kamoa 3, 4, 5 and 6). An updated technical report in March 2026 supports a ramp-up of production to over 500,000 tonnes of copper per annum from 2028 onwards.

The Troy Mine is closed and undergoing reclamation.