Lithium Americas Corp. announced the closing of the investment agreement with GFL International Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd. Pursuant to the Investment Agreement, Ganfeng Lithium agreed to provide Lithium Americas with an aggregate of approximately US$172 million in financing.
in connection with closing of the Investment Agreement, the parties completed the issue and sale of the remaining 63,750,000 common shares at a price of C$0.85 per common share for gross proceeds of approximately C$54 million (US$40 million), executed a credit agreement for a US$125 million credit facility and executed an off-take agreement for the purchase and sale of lithium products. When combined with the 11,250,000 common shares (US$7 million) issued on January 27, 2017 pursuant to an initial equity installment under the Investment Agreement, Ganfeng Lithium now holds 75,000,000 common shares of the Company.
Tom Hodgson, Lithium Americas’ CEO, commented: «We welcome Ganfeng Lithium as our largest shareholder. The closing of the Investment Agreement places Lithium Americas in a strong financial position and will allow the Company to now commence construction of the Cauchari-Olaroz lithium project with our joint venture partner SQM, with the objective of becoming the next low cost brine producer of lithium by 2019.»
Ganfeng Lithium is the largest integrated lithium producer in in China, with a total capacity of around 30,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent. Ganfeng Lithium’s products include lithium metal, lithium hydroxide, lithium carbonate, lithium fluoride, and lithium chloride.
