PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Leo Lithium on Wednesday announced that joint venture partner Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium had agreed to the terms of an expandable $40-million debt facility for the Goulamina project, in Mali.

Leo told shareholders that completion of the facility agreement, which gave Jiangxi Ganfeng a 50% interest in Lithium du Mali SA (LMSA), which holds the Goulamina project, placed Leo Lithium in the robust position of having sufficient funds to cover its share of the Stage 1 development capital costs for the Goulamina project, which are currently estimated at $255-million.

Entering into the facility agreement also completes the company's initial offtake marketing efforts and secures Ganfeng 100% of the spodumene product offtake from Stage 1 of the project.

Stage 1 of the development will produce 506 000 t of spodumene concentrate a year, increasing to 880 000 t/y in Stage 2, for a further investment of $70-million. The project is expected to have a minimum mine life of 21 years, producing some 15.6-million tonnes of spodumene concentrate over that period.

“Leo Lithium and Ganfeng are jointly developing Goulamina with plans to become one of the world’s largest spodumene concentrate producers. The finalisation of the debt funding package from Ganfeng significantly de-risks development and means we are now able to fully focus on accelerating development work on the Goulamina project as we jointly bring Goulamina into production,” said Leo MD Simon Hay.

“The accordion facility provides Leo Lithium with a further funding option, an important feature as the globe experiences broad inflationary pressures.”

Ganfeng vice chairperson Xiaoshen Wang said that the company was delighted to have finalised the remaining piece of its debt and equity funding package with Leo Lithium and looked forward to growing the partnership through the development of the Goulamina project.

“We reiterate our belief that Goulamina represents a project of significant global importance to the lithium supply chain, and look forward to supporting the development of the project through to production,” he said.