Nemaska Lithium seems to be rising from its ashes. American producer Livent, a supplier of transformed lithium for BMW and Tesla batteries, will soon own half of the Quebec company, which was on the brink of bankruptcy less than two years ago.
In a statement released late Monday, Livent announced its intention to double its ownership of Nemaska Lithium from 25% to 50%. To do so, it will issue 17.5 million shares in British investment fund Pallinghurst. At Monday’s closing price in New York, the transaction was worth US $ 374 million.
Investissement Québec, which will retain half of its ownership in Nemaska Lithium, has agreed with Pallinghurst to invest up to $ 600 million in equal shares to relaunch the project. Lithium from the Whabouchi mine in Nord-du-Québec will be converted to lithium hydroxide at a new plant in Bécancour. The first production is now expected in 2025.
We believe Nemaska, as a large-scale, low-cost integrated lithium hydroxide project, will be an integral part of the supply of sustainable critical battery materials, Livent said. We will continue to work closely with the Government of Quebec to ensure that Nemaska becomes a major supplier of hydroxide for high-quality batteries.
According to the Minister of Economy and Innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, Livent, a Philadelphia -based company, has been part of the discussions for a long time when it appeared in the picture in November 2020.
In Elon Musk’s scenes?
Last month, Tesla executive Elon Musk sparked speculation in the mining industry that the automaker might need to take over an established mining company because of high lithium prices-they said. the impact has jumped nearly 80% since the beginning of the year.
The Livent title, with a market capitalization of 3.46 billion US dollars, however, lost nearly 24% of its value in one month. The company of over one thousand workers has manufacturing sites in the United States, England, India, China and Argentina.
Its contract with Tesla is due to end at the end of 2021, but the information available does not allow us to know if it will be extended this year. Livet will release its results in the first quarter of 2022 late Tuesday.
Pallinghurst, still invested in Quebec
Radio-Canada announced in 2020 that Investissement Québec is doing business with a company with a strong presence in tax havens through a partnership with Pallinghurst.
The fund will remain active in the territory with its interest in the Nouveau Monde Graphite; it raised its stake to 21% in October.
Source: Radio-Canada