Altura's maiden 5000 tonne cargo has set sail from Port Hedland on the "MV Clipper Tenacious" heading for China - specifically to offtake partner Lionenergy -  while Pilbara said independent assessment of its maiden shipment (that left the same port last week), had confirmed the "outstanding quality" of its concentrate.

Altura is aiming to ramp up production to 220,000t per annum and Pilbara 330,000tpa.

Both have expansion plans.

And both have also shown themselves to be expeditious developers, moving from discovery to production in around four years.

The news out of the Pilbara region comes in the same week to big ticket lithium producers emerge, with Ganfeng set to start trading in Hong Kong and Livent Corp to debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares in Pilbara were up 1% to A83.5c in afternoon trade, capitalising it at $1.4 billion.

Shares in Altura were down 1% to 24.7c at the same time, capitalising it at $450 million.