JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Thor Mining is expanding its commodity project portfolio in the lithium sector, in North America, through a $75 000 acquisition of a 25% stake in private Australian company US Lithium (USL), which is held by Aim-listed Pembridge Resources.
US Lithium holds interests in projects in Arizona and New Mexico.
Thor Mining has also entered into an agreement which gives it the option to acquire a further 75% of USL and would further provide A$50 000 to USL to cover operational costs during the next three months.
Pembridge said in a statement it would use the proceeds to fund normal working capital. "As with the recently sold Botswana assets, the early-stage exploration lithium assets we inherited from previous management are not suitable under the company's strategy going forward,” Pembridge CEO David Linsley added.
Thor Mining chairperson Mick Billing added that the company was “delighted to have secured a stake in these exciting projects”, with analysts at research firm Morningstar expecting lithium demand to rise 16% a year from 175 000 t in 2015 to 775 000 t by 2025 - the fastest increase of any significant commodity over the past century.
"The lithium projects are well positioned geographically and offer, we believe, significant upside value potential should the work on the ground continue to demonstrate the type of success achieved to date,” he added.
The lithium interests also sit well alongside Thor’s other interests in the US, which include the tungsten-silver-copper Pilot Mountain project, in Nevada.