Sayona Mining has completed $100 million placement to acquire a 60 per cent interest in the Moblan lithium project in Canada.
The company confirmed last week it had signed an agreement with Lithium Royalty Corp to purchase a 60 per cent stake of Moblan for $US86.5 million ($118.8 million) which is held by Guo Ao Lithium.
Sayona has received a vote of confidence to proceed with the acquisition which will add to its existing Abitibi lithium hub in Canada.
The $100 million placement was completed through the issue of around 689.4 million fully paid ordinary shares at an offer price of $0.145 per share.
This was nearly double the company’s previous placement in July which Sayona stated represents its growing market value.
Sayona stated it will also undertake a non-renouncable rights issue to raise $25.5 million at the same offer price as the placement to ensure all shareholders receive an opportunity to participate in the raising.
“I would like to thank our investors for continuing to back Sayona’s expansion in Québec, where we are quickly building the leading lithium resource base in North America,” Sayona managing director Brett Lynch said.
“The Moblan acquisition represents a significant growth opportunity as we build a new lithium base in Northern Québec, adding to our existing Abitibi lithium hub.”
Lynch stated the Moblan project will support North American lithium demand.
“This is important as demand for lithium from North America continues to accelerate, as highlighted by Ford’s recent US$11.4 billion ($15.6 billion) dollar battery investment on top of its US$30 billion investment in (electric vehicles),” he said.
“Ford’s demand alone has the potential to exceed projected supply from all current North American projects in production by 2030.“Sayona wants to be at forefront in supplying this demand and now has both the means and the partners to make this happen.”
The Moblan project has high-grade spodumene mineralisation with a mineral resource foreign estimate of 12.03 million tonnes at 1.4 per cent lithium oxide.