Proving that China is still very much interested in Australian battery metals players, Core Exploration has locked in a further $1.4 million pay cheque from one of country’s biggest lithium producers.
Ya Hua International – a subsidiary of the $2.4 billion Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group – has agreed to stump up further funds at a premium to Core’s (ASX:CXO) current share price and on top of a $2 million cash injection last August.
The placement is valued at 5.3c per share. Core’s shares were trading at 5.2c on Monday morning.
Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed Sichuan Yahua is mainly involved in the manufacture and distribution of civil explosives, but it also has long-term relationships with several lithium battery makers.
Sichuan Yahua’s operations include a 12,000 tonne-per-annum (tpa) lithium hydroxide refinery and a 6,000tpa lithium carbonate refinery.
Lithium hydroxide is mainly used to produce lithium greases, but it is also used as a heat transfer medium and as a storage-battery electrolyte.
Battery-grade lithium carbonate is used to make cathode material for lithium-ion batteries.
Sichuan Yahua is also planning to expand its production to 50,000tpa of lithium salt.
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Core, meanwhile, is working on bringing its Finniss lithium project near Darwin into production and is hoping to complete a prefeasibility study in the current quarter.
The company says this latest placement reflects the strong level of interest from potential offtakers and development partners for the high-grade spodumene at Finniss.
Spodumene is the main lithium bearing mineral mined from most hard rock lithium mines around the world.