Lithium Africa Corp. said it has received two non binding offers to finance development of the Springbok lithium project in South Africa’s Northern Cape. One is a prepayment facility with offtake from a major international commodity trading house covering 100 percent of the project’s spodumene concentrate in its first three years of production. The other is a 60 million dollar investment from a lithium processing company backed by a Fortune Global 500 group for a 55 percent interest in a new holding company that would hold Lithium Africa’s 70 percent interest in Namli Exploration and Mining, which holds Springbok.
The equity proposal implies a pre money valuation of about 70 million dollars for 100 percent of the project and a post money valuation of about 109 million dollars for the new holding company. Lithium Africa would retain 45 percent of the holding company without contributing to the 60 million dollar programme, of which about 10 million dollars would fund drilling across the Springbok district and about 50 million dollars a processing plant. The local South African partner’s 30 percent interest in Namli is unaffected.
The project sits outside Lithium Africa’s 50/50 joint venture with GFL International, an affiliate of Ganfeng Lithium. The company is in discussions with more than 20 potential counterparties across offtake, prepayment, supplier financing and project equity, targets a financing decision in the first half of 2027, and aims at first spodumene production in the second half of 2027 on its earlier guidance.
Shares rose 11.7 percent to 1.62 Canadian dollars on Tuesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at about 40.4 million Canadian dollars. That market value, below the implied project valuation in the offer, is the discount investors are applying to non binding terms, permitting and construction risk, and a lithium price that has yet to prove the project’s economics.