“But everything has changed, and really, really rapidly.

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“It’s now this amazing survival story and here we are on the other side of it … this young company with this amazing position.”

Henderson’s promotion to chief executive in June came at a pivotal time for the miner, coinciding with its decision to forge ahead with a $298 million mine expansion designed to supercharge production and keep pace with the growing global demand for the commodity.

It also came at the tail end of a massive year for Australian exports of the battery metal, which grew 1189 per cent over a 12-month period to $1.16 billion.

Lithium prices are now rallying at record highs and Pilbara Minerals’ shares have doubled in value to $4.72 in the past year.

It’s demand that is being underpinned by the accelerating energy transition and the uptake of electric vehicles, which have rechargeable batteries that rely on the material.

Just last week, the miner signed a formal joint venture deal for a renewable-powered mid-stream processing plant for lithium salts alongside its Pilgangoora operation, one it hopes will result in cost and waste reduction and curb its carbon footprint.

That deal came just one year after the $16 billion hard-rock lithium producer inked a joint venture with steelmaking giant POSCO to develop a 43,000-tonne per annum downstream lithium plant in South Korea.

As an established battery hub, Henderson said South Korea was an attractive location, but it was the cost of construction and labour and the technical expertise in the country helped cement the decision.

As the producer of more than half of the world’s lithium, Henderson believes Australia is positioned like few others to capitalise on the battery boom.

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But the Pilbara boss said the government would need to look at industrial parks with long lease agreements and consider coughing up more financial support if it were to take full advantage of the movement.

“It’s a global game, so unit cost performance ultimately plays out over time,” he said.

“So we need to make sure that we’re set up to win.

“We need to migrate completely from carbon-based energy to non-carbon, and that’s going to require lots and lots of solutions.

“We’re just at the tip of that adoption curve in that EV subset and there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate this amazing supply demand deficit.

“I think the challenge for Australia and businesses is to make the most of this incredible moment in history and position ourselves to take a dominant position for decades to come.”

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