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A $545 million lithium mine in Western Australia has been accepted for development soon after its homeowners, ASX-stated Liontown Assets, signed a offer today with US giant Ford Motor Enterprise to source the battery metallic and back again the job with a massive loan.
Crucial points:
- The Kathleen Valley lithium mine, 680km north-east of Perth, is concentrating on initial generation in 2024
- The mine proprietors have locked in offtake offers with motor vehicle suppliers Ford and Tesla and battery maker LG Electricity Answer
- The expense of design has blown out from primary estimates of $473 million past calendar year to $545 million
The environmentally friendly mild for the Kathleen Valley mine, 60km north of Leinster in WA’s Goldfields, follows final year’s acceptance for the $1.9 billion Mt Holland lithium mine close to Southern Cross and a refinery at Kwinana.
Modern offer amongst Perth-based mostly Liontown and Michigan-headquartered Ford is for the yearly supply of up to 150,000 dry metric tonnes of spodumene focus for 5 years, starting from 2024.
It follows similar transactions with Elon Musk’s Tesla and South Korean battery maker LG Electrical power Answer.
As portion of the offer, Ford will supply Liontown with a $300 million bank loan to fund the project’s improvement.
The corporation lifted $450 million final yr, so is well funded to address the building fees, even with a $72 million blowout on original estimates to $545 million.
‘Globally relevant’ lithium mine
In a statement to the ASX, Liontown’s running director Tony Ottaviano described the ultimate financial commitment choice by the board as just the starting, and claimed the “central undertaking lies in advance” to properly create and commission the mine.
“The signing of our third and last foundational offtake agreement is a momentous milestone for Liontown and the Kathleen Valley venture, with somewhere around 90 for every cent of Kathleen Valley’s start out-up capability now below secured very long-time period binding offtake agreements,” he claimed.
“Our disciplined solution to our offtake approach has enabled us to build a consumer base of tier-a person, globally sizeable prospects in the electrical vehicle battery offer chain, validating Kathleen Valley’s standing as a globally pertinent lithium asset.
“In addition to the offtake, the $300 million funding facility from Ford, collectively with the cash lifted very last calendar year, implies that we have secured commitments for the funds necessary to aid the full industrial enhancement of Kathleen Valley as a result of to initial manufacturing.”
Ford’s vice president of electric powered car or truck industrialisation, Lisa Drake, explained it was a important offer for the car or truck maker.
“Ford proceeds working to source a lot more deeply into the battery source chain to satisfy our objectives of delivering a lot more than two million electrical motor vehicles per year for our prospects by 2026,” she reported.
WA lithium output on the rise
Liontown advised the ASX it had already positioned orders for 73 for every cent of lengthy-direct objects for the processing plant, worth an approximated $83 million.
Mining is envisioned to start early up coming yr to make up stockpiles of ore ahead of the commissioning section.
Kathleen Valley is forecast to deliver about 500,000 tonnes of spodumene focus a year, with plans to broaden to 700,000 tonnes in 2029.
It will incorporate to WA’s increasing variety of lithium mines in generation, which already includes the Greenbushes mine in the South West, the Pilgangoora and Wodgina mines in the Pilbara, Mt Cattlin in the vicinity of Ravensthorpe in the Wonderful Southern, and the Mt Marion and Bald Hill mines in the Goldfields.
Mt Holland — a 50:50 joint venture in between Wesfarmers and Chile’s SQM — is owing to commence generation in the 2nd fifty percent of 2024.
