Bacanora Lithium PLC BCLMF

Bacanora - Sonora Project Summary

[coopgare]

I took the following information from the presentation on the corporate website as a way of summarizing the Sonora project:

As an introduction, the lithium market size in 2013 was $17.5Bn but is estimated to quadruple to $70Bn by 2020.

Timings:
OPEX and CAPEX finalised in Q3 2017
Final FS expected Q4 2017
Construction commences at the site H1 2018
Stage 1 production commences H2 2019

CAPEX:
Stage 1 - $270M
Stage 2 - $180M
Total Project CAPEX - $450M

Hanwa have acquired an initial 10% equity in Bacanora with an option to increase to 19.9%. They will use the Hanwa relationship as a "cornerstone investor" to procure cheaper long term debt funding. 

OPEX:
Stage 1 - $3200/t
Stage 2 - unknown (I would expect OPEX to increase as the Li2CO3 output doubles from 17500 tpa to 35000 tpa, also Potassium Sulfate output more than doubles from 18000tpa to 40000tpa)

Current OPEX estimates are in the lower scale of their peers.

Current market cost for Lithium Carbonate is around $12000/t. [There is nothing mentioned on the sale of the Potassium Sulfate which is used as a fertilizer but I think they'll get around $300/t although I couldn't find a spot price for it]

NPV8 for the project is currently $776M (pre-tax) and $542M (post tax).

Coop