Overview
Because the demand for clear applied sciences grows, so too does the demand for high-tech rechargeable batteries to energy the inexperienced economic system. Nonetheless, america and the European Union’s present dependence on Japan, South Korea and China for 80 p.c of the world’s battery manufacturing is threatening their auto business. As the most important processor and producer of those battery supplies, China alone can considerably affect pricing and provide chain flows.
The US and the European Union are working to cut back dependence on these nations and restructure provide chains. Each areas have recognized Canada as a safe and secure supply of sustainable uncooked supplies, equivalent to lithium, which is essential to the rising electrical car market. Consequently, mining firms with Canada-based tasks that offer supplies wanted for high-tech rechargeable batteries equivalent to lithium could also be an fascinating alternative for traders to contemplate.
Worldwide Lithium (TSXV:ILC,OTC:ILHMF,FRA:IAH,OTCQB:ILHMF) is a mineral exploration firm centered on creating a portfolio of lithium and uncommon metals tasks and royalties in Canada and Eire. The corporate is led by an skilled administration crew with a confirmed observe document of advancing potential tasks with low technical threat in established mining jurisdictions.
Worldwide Lithium delivers shareholder worth via undertaking growth, strategic partnerships and undertaking gross sales. The corporate’s tasks embody the Raleigh Lake and Avalonia tasks.
The corporate’s flagship Raleigh Lake undertaking is a completely owned and extremely potential lithium, rubidium and caesium undertaking in Ontario. Raleigh Lake spans 48,500 hectares adjoining to the Trans-Canada freeway and CPR railway, simply exterior the city of Ignace, and options promising drill outcomes. Drilling recognized stacked tabular dyke-like our bodies that lightly dip from floor, overlaying an space of 600 meters alongside strike by 400 meters downdip with every dyke having grades akin to the three.78-meter interval grading 1.72 p.c lithium oxide and a couple of,829 components per million (ppm) rubidium in drill gap RL21-03. Prospecting on newly acquired claims found 20 new pegmatites at floor stage over a number of kilometers.
A optimistic preliminary financial evaluation for Raleigh Lake, launched in December 2023, reveals an annual after-tax money movement of C$634 million, NPV of C$342.9 million, IRR of 44.3 p.c.
Worldwide Lithium’s Avalonia undertaking is a three way partnership lithium undertaking positioned in Leinster, Eire, spanning 29,200 hectares overlaying a 50-kilometer belt. Drilling on the Avalonia undertaking returned 2.23 p.c lithium oxide over 23.3 meters together with 3.43 p.c lithium oxide over 6 meters and 1.50 p.c lithium oxide over 5.6 meters. The Avalonia undertaking is at present underneath an possibility settlement. Worldwide Lithium at present owns 45 p.c.
“Worldwide Lithium. is now in by far the strongest monetary place that it has been since its itemizing in 2011, and we stay up for constructing efficiently on that each at our lithium and rubidium undertaking at Raleigh Lake in Ontario and on our different current and future tasks,” mentioned chairman and CEO John Wisbey.
In October 2021, the corporate offered its share within the Mavis Lake three way partnership lithium and caesium undertaking in Ontario to Important Assets (ASX:CRR) with proceeds totaling C$1.48 million and a attainable additional C$1.38 million linked to useful resource discovery milestones.
The corporate additionally offered its remaining curiosity within the Mariana undertaking in Argentina for US$13.17 million, which has positioned Worldwide Lithium in a robust monetary place to additional enhance its liquidity. In 2021 alone, the corporate raised C$4.9 million in fairness financing.
Worldwide Lithium is at present centered on creating its flagship Raleigh undertaking, however the firm additionally continues to determine extra properties to develop its portfolio. In February 2024, Worldwide Lithium entered into an settlement to amass 90 p.c curiosity within the Firesteel undertaking, a extremely potential grassroots copper and cobalt property in Northwestern Ontario, signaling an enlargement of the corporate’s essential minerals portfolio. The corporate completed the acquisition of the Firesteel property in Could 2024 and has filed functions for permits to conduct the primary drilling program at Firesteel concentrating on copper mineralization and take a look at as much as six distinct targets with as much as 2,000 metres of core drilling.
Firm Highlights
- Worldwide Lithium is creating a portfolio of lithium and uncommon metals tasks and royalties in Canada and Eire, aiming to ship shareholder worth via undertaking growth, strategic partnerships and undertaking gross sales.
- The corporate’s flagship Raleigh Lake undertaking is a completely owned and extremely potential lithium, rubidium and caesium undertaking in Ontario, Canada.
- The corporate produced its maiden useful resource estimate for lithium and rubidium and has launched a optimistic preliminary financial evaluation for Raleigh Lake.
- Worldwide Lithium has signed an settlement to buy 90 p.c curiosity within the Firesteel undertaking, a extremely potential grassroots copper and cobalt property in Northwestern Ontario.
- The corporate’s 29,200-hectare Avalonia undertaking is a three way partnership lithium undertaking positioned in a big belt in Leinster, Eire. Drilling on the undertaking returned 2.23 p.c lithium oxide over 23.3 meters together with 3.43 p.c lithium oxide over 6.0 meters and 1.50 p.c lithium oxide over 5.60 meters.
- Alongside Canada and Eire, Worldwide Lithium has recognized Zimbabwe as a strategic jurisdiction within the firm’s world lithium technique.
- Worldwide Lithium is led by an skilled administration crew with a confirmed observe document of advancing potential tasks with low technical threat in established mining jurisdictions.
Key Initiatives
Raleigh Lake
The flagship Raleigh Lake undertaking is a completely owned lithium, rubidium and caesium undertaking positioned instantly west of Ignace in Ontario, Canada. The Raleigh Lake undertaking spans 48,500 hectares and is accessible through the Trans-Canada Freeway. The undertaking additionally options entry to the Canadian Pacific railway, pure gasoline pipelines and a hydropower line that crosses via the property.
Drilling on the property started in April 2021 and returned promising grades of lithium, sizable quantities of rubidium and small quantities of caesium. Drilling recognized mineralization hosted in no less than 4 primary pegmatites and extra noticed in outcrops. Drill outcomes embody 2.80 of lithium oxide over 9.0 meters in addition to 1.05 meters grading 2.69 p.c lithium oxide from 31.04 meters and 1.18 meters grading 4210 ppm rubidium from 29.86 meters inside a 3.78-meter interval grading 1.72 p.c lithium oxide and 2829 ppm rubidium.
In 2021, Worldwide Lithium centered on evaluating the regional potential for extra lithium-bearing pegmatites in and across the Raleigh Lake space and, because of this, has expanded the undertaking from 3,000 hectares to greater than 47,700 hectares, based mostly on evaluation of regional geophysical and geological information.
Part 3 of the diamond drilling program, which started in September 2022 at Zone 1 of the Raleigh Lake Lithium undertaking intersected spodumene-bearing pegmatite, demonstrating great continuity of the mineralized physique.
Part 3 drill highlights
- All Part 3 holes testing Pegmatite 1 in Zone 1 intersected spodumene-bearing pegmatite, demonstrating great continuity of the mineralized physique
- Thicker and higher-grade mineralization intersected nearer to the floor as anticipated.
- Part 1, 2 and three pierce factors have intersected Pegmatite 1 alongside a strike size of over 800 meters and alongside its dip for over 400 meters.
Pegmatite 1 Spodumene Zone Intersection Highlights*
- RL22-45: 4.85 meters grading 2.06 p.c lithium oxide in decrease spodumene zone (from 89.5 meters);
- RL22-48: 15.82 meters grading 2.25 p.c lithium oxide (from 65.56 meters);
- RL22-49: 2.21 meters grading 2.47 p.c lithium oxide (from 72.69 meters);
- RL22-50: 4.62 meters grading 2.29 p.c lithium oxide (from 56.12 meters);
- RL22-56: 2.96 meters grading 2.13 p.c lithium oxide (from 72.42 meters);
Pegmatite 1 Rubidium-bearing Microcline Intersection Highlights*
- RL22-45: 3.98 meters grading 1.21 p.c rubidium oxide from 85.52 meters;
- RL22-57: 4.69 meters grading 0.60 p.c rubidium oxide from 152.51 meters.
Maiden Mineral Useful resource Estimate
Worldwide Lithium launched its lithium and rubidium mineral useful resource estimates (MRE), that are intently associated resulting from their spatial relationships, however their respective useful resource estimates are thought of separate and distinctive.
Lithium MRE
This can be a abstract of the lithium MRE for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites of the Raleigh Lake pegmatite area. The open pit and underground MREs are constrained through optimized pit shell and minable form wireframes, respectively.
Rubidium MRE
An impartial MRE has been calculated for the rubidium contained inside microcline zones of the LCT pegmatites. Rubidium additionally happens all through the LCT pegmatites inside the lithium-bearing spodumene at a decrease cutoff however shouldn’t be included on this rubidium MRE. Rubidium reaching grades larger than 4,000 ppm is attributed to pockets of excessive modal abundance of microcline (potassic feldspar). The open pit and underground MREs are constrained through optimized pit shell and minable form wireframes, respectively.
Rubidium Open Pit and Underground MRE
In December 2023, Worldwide Lithium launched its optimistic preliminary financial evaluation (PEA) for a proposed lithium mining operation to provide spodumene focus at Raleigh Lake. The PEA has demonstrated a extremely beneficial financial situation based mostly on the manufacturing of a spodumene focus containing 6 p.c lithium oxide. Mission economics present an after-tax money movement of C$634 million, NPV of C$342.9 million and IRR of 44.3 p.c each year, with a nine-year mine life and undertaking period of 11 years.
Avalonia
Spodumene in boulder at Avalonia
The Avalonia undertaking is a three way partnership lithium undertaking positioned in Leinster, Eire. The property spans 29,200 hectares overlaying a 50-kilometer belt with round 29 important lithium pegmatite occurrences. Drilling on the Avalonia undertaking returned 2.23 p.c lithium oxide over 23.3 meters together with 3.43 p.c lithium oxide over 6.0 meters and 1.50 p.c lithium oxide over 5.60 meters. Nonetheless, some drill outcomes on the property are nonetheless pending.
Worldwide Lithium at present owns 45 p.c of the undertaking whereas Ganfeng Lithium owns 55 p.c. Ganfeng Lithium has the choice to amass 79 p.c of the undertaking by spending C$10 million for exploration actions by September 2024 or by producing a optimistic feasibility examine. If the choice is exercised, Worldwide Lithium will retain 21 p.c of the Avalonia undertaking which can cut back additional if the corporate doesn’t contribute to the undertaking. Nonetheless, if the corporate’s possession turns into lower than 10 p.c then its share will convert to a 1 p.c NSR.
Firesteel Copper Mission
The 6,600-hectare Firesteel property consists of 17 mining claims, making up 316 mining declare models in Northwestern Ontario. The property is adjoining to Freeway 17, lower than 10 kilometers west of Upsala, Ontario stretching westward to the Firesteel River for about 16 kilometers.
Firesteel is positioned inside the central Wabigoon Sub-province on the japanese restrict of the Lumby Lake Greenstone Belt, which comprises large mafic flows or gabbro interspersed with skinny felsic meta volcanic and uncommon pillowed mafic models. Historic assay outcomes from samples taken at areas roughly 1.6 kilometers northeast and a couple of.8 kilometers southwest of the Roadside 1 Copper Zone returned values of as much as 2.6 p.c copper, 3.327 ppm gold and a couple of.6 p.c copper, 4.294 ppm gold, respectively (Bumbu 1995).
Administration Staff
John Wisbey – Chairman and CEO
John Wisbey joined the board of ILC in 2017. After a number of months, he turned deputy chairman after which he turned chairman and CEO in March 2018. He has personally invested important funds in ILC since becoming a member of the board and is now ILC’s largest shareholder. He has had a profession as a expertise entrepreneur and can be a former banker. Extra lately, Wisbey was a inexperienced vitality entrepreneur. He based two London AIM-listed firms –– IDOX plc which offers software program for the UK native authorities and Lombard Threat Administration plc which focuses on software program for financial institution threat administration and regulation. He additionally established CONVENDIA Ltd. which is a personal firm that makes a speciality of software program for money movement forecasting, undertaking valuation and M&A monetary evaluation. Wisbey holds varied non-executive director roles within the UK and Switzerland. He was previously a banker at Kleinwort Benson. At Kleinwort Benson, he held varied roles, together with a director within the derivatives group, head of choices and company lending. Wisbey has acted as a public firm chairman, CEO, or director for twenty years. He’s a graduate of Cambridge College.
Maurice Brooks – Director and CFO
Maurice Brooks joined the board of ILC in 2017. He’s a licensed senior statutory auditor within the UK. Since 2000, he has been a senior companion at Johnson Smith & Co. in Staines, Surrey. Earlier than that, Brooks was a senior companion in Johnsons Chartered Accountants within the London Borough of Ealing. His business and funding expertise contains government directorships in manufacturing and an funding accountant function to the superannuation fund of the Western Australian state authorities. His early skilled employment contains Ball Baker Leake LLP and LLC and Worth Waterhouse Coopers-UK.
Anthony Kovacs – Director and COO
Anthony Kovacs joined the board of ILC in 2018 and has labored with the corporate since 2012. He has over 25 years of expertise in mineral exploration and growth. Earlier than becoming a member of ILC, he held senior administration roles wherein he sourced and superior iron ore and industrial minerals tasks. Kovacs was concerned in early-stage work on the Lac Otelnuk Iron Ore undertaking in Quebec, Canada and the Mustavaara Vanadium Mine in Finland. Earlier than that, Kovacs labored for Anglo American the place he centered on Ni-Cu-PGE and IOCG tasks. At Anglo-American, Kovacs was straight concerned in a number of discoveries internationally. Kovacs has important expertise with industrial minerals, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and treasured metals tasks all through the Americas, Europe and Africa.
Ross Thompson – Non-executive Director
Ross Thompson joined the board of ILC in 2017 and is the chair of the audit and remuneration committees. He’s a speaker and knowledgeable in advertising behavioral science. In 1995, he based Giftpoint Ltd. which is now one of many largest specialist promotional merchandise companies within the UK. with workplaces in London and Shanghai. Giftpoint Ltd.’s purchasers embody L’Oreal, Oracle, Ocado and Pernod Ricard amongst others. Thompson was president of IGC World Promotions, one of many world’s oldest and largest world networks of premium resellers, for seven years. He’s an energetic investor with a particular curiosity and understanding of pure sources companies.
Geoffrey Baker, Non-executive Director
Geoff Baker joined the board of ILC on the finish of 2022, and is a member of the audit committee. He has a distinguished profession within the pure useful resource and finance industries. He’s a director of Tim Buying and selling, an organization providing consultancy companies within the oil and gasoline business. Throughout his tenure as supervisor of Insch Black Gold Funds, Baker obtained the Traders Alternative Swiss Fund Supervisor of the Yr Award. He’s a co-founder of a digital collectible non fungible token CryptoChronic and of Cannastore, a pilot e-commerce web site. Baker holds a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Windsor in Ontario.
