Bacanora Lithium secures $150m debt facility for Sonora project

Bacanora Lithium has entered into a $150m senior debt facility with RK Mine Finance for the development of Stage 1 of the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico, an initial 17,500tpa lithium carbonate operation, it announced on Thursday.

The AIM-traded company said it believed the “competitive terms” of the RK facility provided further validation of the quality of Sonora's battery grade product, and its potential to become a “leading supplier” of high-value lithium products to industries such as electric vehicles and energy storage.

It said the facility formed part of an overall funding package for Sonora, with further updates to be provided in due course.

The funding followed the favourable feasibility study, which assigned a pre-tax $1.253bn net present value to the Sonora Lithium Project.

“We believe that senior debt facilities of this size have been few and far between in the junior resource space in recent years,” said Bacanora chief executive officer Peter Secker.

“Furthermore, we consider that the costs and terms of the facility are highly competitive when compared to other debt packages that have recently been reported for greenfield lithium projects in Canada and Australia.

“We view the debt facility with RK as a vote of confidence in Sonora's credentials by a leading specialist debt provider in the resource sector.”