Firefinch has signed an agreement with Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium to advance the 50-50 joint venture (JV) of the Goulamina Lithium Project in Mali. Earlier in 2021, the two companies signed an agreement. According to the agreement, Ganfeng will obtain a 50% equity interest in the joint venture by providing up to US$200 million.

The funds include a US$130 million equity investment in two phases, and arrangements for construction and project commissioning of up to US$64 million in debt. A new joint venture focused on lithium was named Leo Lithium. Michael Anderson, Managing Director of Firefinch, said: Another important milestone has been achieved in pushing Goulamina to construction and production. The official documents have been completed, and the remaining prerequisites for the completion of the $200 million Ganfeng transaction are being successfully completed. After negotiating with our partner Ganfeng, we also agreed to advance FID to the end of 2021.

"With the support of active FID, we will be in a very advantageous position to split Goulamina into a vibrant new Australian Stock Exchange listed lithium company Leo Lithium, and list it in early 2022." Firefinch and Ganfeng have agreed. Speed up Goulamina's final investment decision (FID), the target is the December 2021 quarter.

With the early completion of FID, Ganfeng expects to provide a second cash investment of US$91 million and arrange debt financing of up to US$64 million earlier than originally expected. Since the announcement, Firefinch and Ganfeng have worked together on the scope and design of the project, including incorporating the proposed changes into the process. The two companies have designated Lycopodium to update the October 202 DFS (Updated DFS), which will support FID.

Keywords, overseas engineering, international engineering construction, foreign engineering construction news

Goulamina claims to be the first such project in West Africa and is currently scheduled to start production in 2023. It is expected that the next large-scale global lithium hard rock project will be put into operation in this area. Wang Xiaoshen, Vice Chairman of Ganfeng, said: "We are very happy to establish a partnership with Firefinch in Goulamina. "We are particularly pleased to speed up the process of implementing FID and look forward to putting Goulamina into production as soon as possible. "Editor/XuNing