Galaxy has subscribed for A$2.9 million via a private placement.
Lepidico is seeking to raise a further $4 million at 1c from existing shareholders on the same terms to guide the technology’s Phase 1 feasibility study through to a final investment decision and to further develop the company’s exploration activities.
CPS Capital has agreed to partially underwrite the 1:6 entitlement offer up to $2 million.
Galaxy has agreed to take up its full entitlement and sub-underwrite up to $1 million in entitlements not taken up.
The pair said late yesterday that their alliance was “based on a shared vision for the significant global opportunity provided by the commercialisation of Lepidico’s L-Max technology”, a hydrometallurgical process uses milled lithium-bearing mica ores that are acid-leached to leave the bulk of the silica behind.
The first development of L-Max is being targeted for a plant in Canada from 2019.
The pair will now assess potential synergies with Galaxy’s Mt Cattlin mine in Australia and James Bay project in Canada, as well as accessing additional mica feedstock sources globally.
Galaxy managing director Anthony Tse described L-Max as an “exciting technology” the company believed could be capitalised on as the global lithium sector expanded.
Lepidico managing director Joe Walsh said the direct investment by a leading lithium industry player such was a “great endorsement” of both Lepidico’s strategy and its L-Max technology.
“The financing package announced today means that Lepidico is fully funded for the completion of the Phase 1 L-Max plant feasibility study and provides sufficient additional capital to expand the company’s mineral resource definition program, with the object of delineating sufficient material to support a pre-feasibility study for a full-scale plant,” he said.
The 1c raisings are at a 14% discount to the 30% average shareprice.
Adrian Griffin‘s Lithium Australia, which launched a failed $23.8 million off-market all-scrip takeover bid for Lepidico earlier this year, had been Lepidico’s largest shareholder with around 16%.
It is yet to indicate if it will take up its full entitlement to maintain a large position in the junior.
Galaxy will nominate a representative to the Lepidico board.
