By Felix Njini and Nelson Banya
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Sibanye Stillwater said on Thursday it had secured an additional 500 million euros ($557.30 million) debt financing to complete a new lithium mine in Finland, forging ahead with the project amid a slump in prices for the battery metal.
The Johannesburg-based precious metals producer said the loan financing, partly funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB), will help it bring the Keliber lithium project to production from 2026.
Sibanye, which mines gold and platinum metals in South Africa and the U.S., will continue to advance the mine and processing plant as it sees potential for recovery in lithium prices, James Wellsted, the spokesperson, said.
“We still have a strong conviction that there is going to be (lithium supply) deficits in the market and prices are going to increase,” Wellsted told Reuters.
Albemarle, the world’s largest lithium producer, last month said it would slash costs for the second time this year, embarking on a comprehensive review of its operating structure due to tumbling prices for the metal used to make electric vehicle batteries.
A basket of lithium prices tracked by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence shows they have fallen about 70% over the past year because of weaker-than-expected global demand for electric vehicles, due in part to high borrowing costs and global economic uncertainty.
The Keliber project, in which Finnish Minerals Group owns minority stake, is expected to produce about 15,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium annually for at least 16 years.
While the project could supply European electric vehicle manufacturers and gigafactories, Sibanye hasn’t started selling the offtake yet, Wellsted said.
Sibanye plans to start processing third-party spodumene supplies at the Keliber plant in 2025 and concentrates from its own mine the year after, he added.
Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in an earlier statement the latest financing package will help improve the company’s liquidity, “effectively ring-fencing the existing group facilities for operational requirements”, Froneman added.
Sibanye previously raised about 250 million euros through equity to finance the project.
($1 = 0.8972 euros)
($1 = 17.9233 rand)
(Reporting by Nelson Banya and Felix Njini; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and David Evans)
