Atlantic Lithium advances offtake partnering process for Ewoyaa project in Ghana
() , an Africa-focused lithium explorer, announced the completion of Stage 1 of its offtake partnering process to secure funding for some of the remaining 50% available feedstock from its flagship Ewoyaa lithium project in Ghana.
The objective of the process is to attract offers to sufficiently cover Atlantic's allocation of expenditure for the Ewoyaa project, to expedite and derisk its development, and to realise attractive terms for the offtake contracted.
Following significant inbound interest prior to commencement of the offtake process, and the receipt of bids from interested parties through Stage 1, Atlantic has now moved to a more detailed Stage 2 due diligence phase. The offtake process is being led by global investment bank Macquarie Capital.
"We look forward to concluding the offtake partnering process in the coming months, which represents a major milestone in securing funding to cover the Company's allocation of development expenditure for the Project and advancing Ewoyaa towards construction and production." commented Neil Herbert, Executive Chairman of Atlantic Lithium.
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Atlantic continues to garner funding for its flagship Ewoyaa lithium project in Ghana. Only yesterday, the company announced an initial US$5m strategic investment out of a planned US$32.9m from the Minerals Income Investment Fund of Ghana (MIIF) to support the project and Atlantic's broader Ghana portfolio toward production. MIIF's remaining investment is expected in the coming months. Additionally, Atlantic completed a £4.2m fundraise in December. Besides MIIF and the potential offtake, Atlantic main partner on the project is US-based Piedmont Lithium who has committed US$70m and 50% thereafter of the total US$185m capex.
The offtake partnering process to secure additional funding has now entered Stage 2 following significant interest in the project's feedstock from companies across the battery minerals space, including OEMs, battery gigafactories, traders, and chemical processors. Atlantic received a number of non-binding offers during Stage 1, and is now narrowing down the offers in Stage 2. Given that Atlantic is one of the very few near-term spodumene producers with available offtake yet to be committed, and the attractiveness of Ewoyaa's economics, we expect the process to conclude swiftly in Q1.
Ewoyaa is one the lowest capex and opex hard lithium projects globally, with strong commercial metrics and profitability potential for a 2.7Mtpa operation, producing a total of 3.6Mt of spodumene concentrate (approx. 350,000tpa) over a 12-year mine life (LOM). The project's updated definitive feasibility study determined a post-tax NPV8 of US$1.3bn, with free cash flow of US$2.1bn from LOM revenues of US$6.6bn and average LOM EBITDA of US$280m per year. C1 cash operating costs were estimated at US$377/t of concentrate Free-On-Board Ghana Port, after by-product credits, with an AISC of US$675/t.
An upgrade to Ewoyaa's mineral resource estimate (MRE) is expected in Q3 2024. Commencement of construction is targeted for late 2024, and initial production for early 2025.
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