Review
In spite of its lengthy mining historical past, beneficial regulatory local weather and strong political backdrop, Ghana stays in large part lost sight of as an funding jurisdiction for battery metals. Positioned at the West African coast, the rustic boasts a powerful strategic location and abundance of mineral wealth.
In 2023, the rustic reclaimed its identify as Africa’s primary manufacturer of gold. And gold is not the one valuable steel to be discovered within the nation. Ghana may be house to important lithium reserves, with c. 180,000 tonnes of estimated sources.
Positioned between Europe, america and China, Ghana is completely located to function the most important hub for the worldwide provide of the battery steel.
Australian lithium exploration and construction corporate Atlantic Lithium (ASX:A11, AIM:ALL, OTCQX:ALLIF) intends to leverage this chance thru its flagship Ewoyaa venture, set to turn into Ghanaâs first lithium-producing mine. Atlantic intends to supply spodumene pay attention in a position to conversion to lithium hydroxide and carbonate to be used in electrical car batteries, serving to pressure the transition to decarbonisation.
A definitive feasibility learn about (DFS) launched in June 2023 presentations that, bearing in mind its present 35.3 million lots (Mt) @ 1.22 p.c lithium oxide JORC Mineral Useful resource Estimate and conservative life-of-mine pay attention pricing of US$1,587/t, FOB Ghana Port, Ewoyaa has demonstrable financial viability, low capital depth and very good profitability. Thru easy open-pit mining, three-stage crushing and standard Dense Media Separation (DMS) processing, the DFS outlines the manufacturing of three.6 Mt of spodumene pay attention over a 12-year mine existence, handing over US$6.6 billion life-of-mine revenues, a post-tax NPV8 of US$1.5 billion and an interior price of go back of 105 p.c.
Atlantic Lithium intends to deploy a Modular DMS plant forward of starting off operations on the large-scale major plant to generate early earnings, which can cut back the height investment requirement of the principle plant. The venture is anticipated to ship first spodumene manufacturing as early as April 2025.
The advance of the venture is co-funded below an settlement with NASDAQ and ASX-listed Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL), with Piedmont anticipated to fund c. 70 p.c of the USA$185 million general capex. In response to the settlement, Piedmont is investment US$17 million in opposition to research and exploration and an preliminary US$70 million in opposition to the full capex. Prices are break up similarly between Atlantic Lithium and Piedmont thereafter.
In go back, Piedmont will obtain 50 p.c of the spodumene pay attention produced at Ewoyaa, offering a path to shoppers thru a number of primary battery producers, together with Tesla. With 50 p.c of its offtake nonetheless to be had, Atlantic Lithium is one in all only a few near-term spodumene pay attention manufacturers with uncommitted offtake.
Already the biggest taxpayer and employer in Ghanaâs Central Area, Atlantic Lithium is anticipated to supply direct employment to more or less 800 staff at Ewoyaa and, thru its neighborhood construction fund wherein 1 p.c of retained profits might be allotted to native tasks, will ship long-lasting advantages to the area and to Ghana.
Atlantic Lithium additionally has the prospective to capitalise upon really extensive further upside throughout its intensive exploration portfolio â doable it intends to leverage to the fullest because it turns into an early mover in West African lithium manufacturing.
Set to be Ghana’s first lithium-producing mine, Atlantic Lithium’s flagship Ewoyaa Venture is positioned inside of 110 kilometres of Takoradi Port and 100 kilometres of Accra, with get entry to to very good infrastructure and a talented native staff. A definitive feasibility learn about (DFS) launched in June 2023 showed the venture’s financial viability and profitability doable, indicating a three.6-Mt spodumene pay attention manufacturing over the mine’s 12-year projected existence.
Atlantic Lithium is lately within the strategy of securing a mining hire for the venture, which can allow the graduation of the allowing procedure. In the course of the deployment of a Modular DMS plant, which can procedure 450,000 lots of ore as the principle 2.7-Mt processing plant is being built, the mine is anticipated to ship first manufacturing in 2025.
Atlantic Lithium lately has two programs pending for a space of more or less 774 sq. kilometres within the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire. The underexplored but extremely potential area is understood to be underlain by way of prolific birimian greenstone belts, characterized by way of fractionated granitic intrusive centres with lithium and colombite-tantalum occurrences and outcropping pegmatites. The world may be extremely well-served, with intensive street infrastructure, well-established cell community and high-voltage transmission line inside of more or less 100 kilometres of the rustic’s capital, Abidjan.
Control Staff
Neil Herbert – Govt Chairman
Neil Herbert is a fellow of the Affiliation of Chartered Qualified Accountants and has over 30 years of revel in in finance. He has been concerned with rising mining and oil and gasoline firms each as an govt and as an investor for over 25 years. Till Would possibly 2013, he was once co-chairman and managing director of AIM-quoted Polo Sources, a herbal sources funding corporate.
Previous to this, Herbert was once a director of useful resource funding corporate Galahad Gold, and then he turned into finance director of its maximum a hit funding, the start-up uranium corporate UraMin, from 2005 to 2007. Throughout this era, he labored to waft the corporate on AIM and the Toronto Inventory Change in 2006, elevate US$400 million in fairness financing and negotiate the sale of the crowd for US$2.5 billion.
Herbert has held board positions at a lot of useful resource firms the place he has been concerned with managing a lot of acquisitions, disposals, inventory marketplace listings and fundraisings. He holds a joint honours level in economics and financial historical past from the College of Leicester.
Keith Muller – Leader Govt Officer
Keith Muller is a mining engineer with over twenty years of operational and management revel in throughout home and global mining, together with within the lithium sector. He has a powerful operational background in arduous rock lithium mining and processing, in particular in DMS spodumene processing. Sooner than becoming a member of Atlantic Lithium, he held roles as each a industry chief and common supervisor at Allkem, the place he labored at the Mt Cattlin lithium mine in Western Australia.
Previous to that, Muller served as operations supervisor and senior mining engineer at Simec. He holds a Grasp of Mining Engineering from the College of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Engineering from the College of Pretoria. He’s additionally a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Board of Skilled Engineers of Queensland, and the Engineering Council of South Africa.
Amanda Harsas – Finance Director and Corporate Secretary
Amanda Harsas is a senior finance govt with a demonstrable observe file and over 25 yearsâ revel in in strategic finance, industry transformation, business finance, buyer and provider negotiations and capital control. Previous to becoming a member of Atlantic Lithium, she labored throughout a number of sectors together with healthcare, insurance coverage, retail {and professional} products and services. Harsas is a chartered accountant, holds a Bachelor of Industry and has global revel in in Asia, Europe and the USA.
Len Kolff – Head of Industry Building and Leader Geologist
Len Kolff has over 25 years of mining trade revel in within the primary and junior sources sector. With a confirmed observe file in deposit discovery and a selected center of attention on Africa, Kolff maximum not too long ago labored in West Africa and was once instrumental within the discovery and analysis of the corporateâs Ewoyaa Lithium Venture in Ghana, in addition to the invention and analysis of the Mofe Creek iron ore venture in Liberia. Previous to this, he labored at Rio Tinto with a focal point on Africa, together with the Simandou iron ore venture in Guinea and the Northparkes Copper-Gold mine in Australia.
Kolff holds a Grasp of Financial Geology from CODES, College of Tasmania and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) level from the Royal Faculty of Mines, Imperial School, London.
Patrick Brindle – Non-executive Director
Patrick Brindle lately serves as govt vice-president and leader running officer at Piedmont Lithium. He joined Piedmont in January 2018. Previous to this, he held roles as vice-president of venture control and therefore as leader construction officer.
Brindle has greater than twenty years’ revel in in senior control and engineering roles and has finished EPC initiatives in various jurisdictions together with america, Canada, China, Mongolia, Australia and Brazil. Sooner than becoming a member of Piedmont, he was once vice-president of engineering for DRA Taggart, a subsidiary of DRA World, an engineering company specialising in venture supply of mining and mineral processing initiatives globally.
Kieran Daly – Non-executive Director
Kieran Daly is the chief of expansion and strategic construction at Assore. He holds a BSc Mining Engineering from Camborne Faculty of Mines (1991) and an MBA from Wits Industry Faculty (2001) and labored in funding banking/fairness analysis for greater than 10 years at UBS, Macquarie and Investec previous to becoming a member of Assore in 2018.
Daly spent the primary 15 years of his mining occupation at Anglo Americanâs coal department (Anglo Coal) in a lot of global roles together with operations, gross sales and advertising, technique and industry construction. Amongst his key roles have been main and creating Anglo Coal’s advertising efforts in Asia and to metal trade shoppers globally. He was once additionally the worldwide head of technique for Anglo Coal straight away previous to leaving Anglo in 2007.
Christelle Van Der Merwe – Non-executive Director
Christelle Van Der Merwe is a mining geologist chargeable for the mining-related geology and sources of Assoreâs subsidiary firms (comprising the pyrophyllite and chromite mines) and may be eager about the corporate’s iron and manganese mines. She has been the Assore staff geologist since 2013 and concerned with strategic and useful resource funding selections of the corporate. Van Der Merwe is a member of SACNASP and the GSSA.
Jonathan Henry – Unbiased Non-executive Director
Jonathan Henry is a senior govt with important, international indexed corporate revel in, essentially within the mining trade, having held quite a lot of management and board roles for almost 20 years. Henry is lately the non-executive chair of Toronto Challenge Change-listed (TSX-V) Giyani Metals. He has been closely concerned within the strategic control and management of initiatives towards manufacturing, commercialisation and, in the long run, the realisation of shareholder price. He has won important revel in running throughout capital markets, industry construction, venture financing, key stakeholder engagement (together with public and investor family members), and the reporting and implementation of ESG-focused tasks.
Henry was once the chief chair and non-executive director at Euronext Expansion and AIM-listed Ormonde Mining, non-executive director at TSX-V-listed Ashanti Gold, president, director and CEO at TSX-listed Gabriel Sources and quite a lot of roles, together with CEO and managing director, at London and Oslo Inventory Change-listed Avocet Mining PLC.
Aaron Maurer â Head of Operational Readiness
Aaron Maurer is a senior-level industry govt with over 25 yearsâ global multi-commodity mining revel in, overseeing strategic, operational and monetary efficiency. Over his occupation, he has held a number of engineering, manufacturing, operational and senior govt roles. Sooner than becoming a member of Atlantic Lithium, he served as govt common supervisor – operations at Minerals Sources, the place he oversaw the Mt Marion Lithium mine and 3 iron ore mines in Western Australia. He was once up to now the managing director and CEO of PVW Sources and common supervisor (website senior govt) at Peabody Power Australia.
His important experience spans the improvement and implementation of protection and cost-saving tasks, exchange control, strategic making plans, industry construction and worker construction. Maurer holds a Grasp in Company Finance and a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining).
Roux Terblanche – Venture Supervisor
Roux Terblanche is a mineral useful resource venture supply specialist with confirmed African and Australian revel in running for house owners, EPCMs, specialists and contractors. He has quite a lot of commodity studies, together with lithium, gold, copper, diamonds and platinum. He has confirmed so as to add price and ship initiatives safely, on time and inside of finances.
Terblanche has labored within the UAE and throughout Africa, together with Ghana, the DRC, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Rwanda, Botswana and Senegal. He was once instrumental in expanding the running footprint of a global development corporate throughout Africa and was once integral to the construction of the Akyem, Tarkwa Segment 4 and Chirano mines in Ghana.
Terblanche holds a countrywide degree in mechanical engineering, a degree in venture control and a Bachelor of Trade from the College of South Africa.
Iwan Williams – Exploration Supervisor
Iwan Williams is an exploration geologist with over twenty years’ revel in throughout a huge vary of commodities, mainly iron ore, manganese, gold, copper (porphyry and sed. hosted), PGE’s, nickel and different base metals, in addition to chromitite, phosphates, coal and diamond.
Williams has intensive southern and west African revel in and has labored in Central and South The united states. His revel in contains all facets of exploration control, venture era, alternative evaluations, due diligence and mine geology. He has intensive research revel in having participated within the supply of a couple of venture research together with useful resource, mine design standards, baseline environmental and social research and metallurgical test-work programmes. He’s very acquainted with running in Africa having spent 23 years of his 28-year geological occupation in Africa. Williams is a graduate of the College of Liverpool.
Abdul Razak – Nation Supervisor
Abdul Razak has intensive exploration, useful resource analysis and venture control revel in all over West Africa with a powerful center of attention on data-rich environments. He has intensive gold revel in having labored all over Ghana with AngloGold Ashanti, Goldfields Ghana, Perseus and Golden Superstar, in addition to global exploration and useful resource analysis revel in in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Guinea.
Razak is an integral member of the staff, managing all website actions together with drilling, laboratory, native groups, geotech and hydro, neighborhood consultations and stakeholder engagements and was once instrumental in status quo of the present construction staff and defining Ghanaâs maiden lithium useful resource estimate. He’s primarily based on the venture website in Ghana.