Piedmont Lithium has successfully raised $130.8 million from offering for sale of 1.5 million shares of its common stock to fund its targeted operations in Ghana and North America.
The investment will enable the company establish an integrated Lithium operations at its North American portfolio in Quebec as well as exploration and definitive feasibility studies at Ewoyaa in Ghana.
The accumulated funds from the Public Offering will be allotted to support Piedmont’s possible strategic initiatives and for general corporate purposes as well. The funds will help advance the Company’s merchant lithium hydroxide plant in the Southeastern United States.
The Company also intends to continue the development of the Carolina Lithium Project, where it is head-quartered. This includes ongoing permitting activities, engineering design, and property acquisition.
The underwritten capital increase was held in the US, with Thomson Geer acting on the Australian legal aspect of the transaction. The Thomson Geer team was led by partner Michael Ng, who received support from Senior Associate Chris Seotis.
Financial services firms J.P. Morgan and Evercore ISI acted as joint book-runners, while Canaccord Genuity, B. Riley Securities, BTIG LLC, Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc., D.A. Davidson & Co., Jett Capital Advisors LLC, Loop Capital Markets, Roth Capital Partners, ThinkEquity, and Tuohy Brothers served as managers for the transaction.
Economic Assessment of Portfolio
Commenting on the preliminary economic assessment of Piedmont Lithium’s portfolio in Quebec and production timelines of Ewoyaa, President and CEO, Keith Phillips, said:
“While there remains a focus on our proposed flagship Carolina Lithium Project in Gaston County, N.C., we’ve been expanding our portfolio of mineral resources, production capacity, and upside financial exposure through assets and strategic investments in Quebec and Ghana.
“The planned 2023 restart of North American Lithium in conjunction with our partner, Sayona Mining, and the potential for spodumene production at Ewoyaa in partnership with Atlantic Lithium as early as 2024, creates an attractive timeline for potential revenue generation that could precede output at our proposed Carolina Lithium project.”
Keith Phillips
The increased demand for EV batteries as well as the “steady drumbeat of expansion announcements from Original Equipment Manufacturers, continues to drive the need for additional lithium hydroxide supply to support the U.S. market,” Phillips said.
Piedmont Lithium is upbeat about expanding its access to resources, in addition to more hydroxide production capacity through a second potential plant. This, Phillips said, “would serve as a way of delivering security of supply to potential customers and returning value to shareholders in the process.”
Update of Mineral Resource Estimate of Ewoyaa
In a recent update of the mineral resource estimate of the Ewoyaa project in Cape Coast, Atlantic Lithium recorded a significant upgraded in the Indicated Category of the resource estimate to 30.1Mt at 1.26% Li2O, representing an increase of 42 per cent.
The increase in the resource estimate, is in line with the company’s goal to increase the Resource to support a more than 12-year mine life and to convert more than 80% of the previous resource from Inferred to Indicated status.
Piedmont’s Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Brindle said: “The Ewoyaa Project is one of the best located Spodumene concentrate for our LHP-2 Project. We look forward to Atlantic Lithium’s completion of a prefeasibility study for the Ewoyaa Project, which will both increase the level of engineering definition for the project as well as provide important data needed to advance regulatory approvals for the project.”
The company, in Q3 2021, made an initial investment of 10 per cent into Atlantic Lithium (then Iron Ridge). Piedmont has an earn-in right to a 50 per cent interest in Atlantic lithium’s portfolio in Ghana via staged investments over 3-4 years supporting exploration, definitive feasibility study, and initial capital costs for Atlantic Lithium’s Ewoyaa Project.
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