Quebec junior Nemaska Lithium has terminated its multi-year supply agreement with Livent, prompting the NYSE-listed company to announce that it would “enforce its rights” and resume its arbitration.
Nemaska was supposed to start supplying lithium carbonate to Livent in April this year, at a rate of 8 000 t/y, or 28 000 t over the term of the contract.
Nemaska and Livent have been locked in negotiations to revise the schedule for the supply of lithium carbonate, among other agreements. Livent previously filed arbitration, but suspended it during the negotiation period.
Nemaska said that Livent had advised that it “might have no option but to terminate the supply agreement and repay Livent the $10-million payment, plus a similar amount as a termination fee”.
“Despite good faith negotiations, the corporation was unable to reach a mutually satisfactory outcome with Livent,” Nemaska said.
This is the second knock for Nemaska, which last week announced that it would need a further C$375-million to complete its Whabouchi mine and Shwanigan electrochemical plant. Nemaska initially set a budget of C$874.4-million for the project.
Over the life-of-mine production, the company is expected to produce seven-million tonnes of spodumene concentrate, which will be converted into about 770 000 t of battery-grade lithium hydroxide and about 361 000 t of battery-grade lithium carbonate, which equates to about 213 000 t/y of concentrate being converted to about 23 000 t/y battery-grade lithium hydroxide and 11 000 t/y of lithium carbonate.