Bacanora amends joint venture with Solarworld over Deutsche Lithium

Lithium development and exploration company Bacanora Lithium has reached agreement with the administrators of Solarworld to amend the joint venture agreement over Deutsche Lithium (DL), which owns 100% of the Zinnwald Lithium Project in southeast Germany.

The AIM-traded firm had acquired an initial 50% interest in DL in February 2017, and had an option to acquire the outstanding 50% that it did not own, whilst Solarworld had the right, but not the obligation, to buy back Bacanora's shareholding for €1.

It said it had agreed to cancel the call options.

As a result, Bacanora would now own 50% of DL, and Solarworld, which is currently in administration, would hold the other 50%.

Bacanora said it had committed to provide a minimum of €1.35m in funding to DL over the next two years to progress the development of Zinnwald.

As it had previously announced, that funding was expected to progress the lithium testwork and downstream engineering stages.

“We welcome the changes to the joint venture agreement and look forward to continuing to work on the engineering and design of the Zinnwald Lithium Project,” said chief executive officer Peter Secker.

“We have a strong management team in place in Germany and continue to progress the project and work with potential investors on its financing.

“We fully believe that Zinnwald has the potential to become a leading supplier to the European battery industry.”

At 1516 GMT, shares in Bacanora Lithium were down 4.56% at 31.5p.