RE:Nemaska Lithium obtient un peu de liquiditésNemaska Lithium gets a little bit of cash Guy Veillette GUY VEILLETTE Le Nouvelliste SHAWINIGAN - Still in the process of restructuring, Nemaska Lithium has found a way to obtain new cash by selling its interest in Monarques Gold Corporation. This transaction, approved by the Quebec Superior Court, allows Nemaska Lithium to raise approximately $3.5 million. For Monarques, this is an important decision, since Nemaska Lithium held 6% of the shares of the Abitibi-based company, with its 15.8 million shares. However, the company's President and CEO, Jean-Marc Lacoste, points out that this transaction, which was foreseeable in the context of restructuring, was followed by an equivalent takeover by American investors. The junior gold company's stock fell to $0.225 on Thursday, but then recovered to close at $0.265 on Friday on the TSX Venture Exchange. "It was important for us to put this block in the hands of major shareholders in the United States," Lacoste said. "We didn't want it to be sold on the market. The transaction was arranged by Toronto brokers and we found a buyer for this block, which still represented nearly 16 million shares." Mr. Lacoste explains that Nemaska Lithium participated in the creation of Monarch Resources in 2011. At the time, the junior mining company preferred to focus on lithium development. "Monarques had taken all the exploration assets in James Bay that were not related to lithium," he explains. "Since then, Nemaska Lithium has always been a shareholder of Monarques. When Nemaska filed for creditor protection in December, we knew that the company's stake in Monarques would be sold to meet its cash shortfall." Guy Bourassa, President and CEO of Nemaska Lithium and Michel Baril, former Chairman of the Board of the same company, sat on the board of Monarques from its inception until they resigned on April 24th. "We can say that the sale of this block was complementary to their departure," says Lacoste. Monarques' activities are concentrated in Abitibi. "We have a market capitalization of approximately $70 million," says the president and chief executive officer. "We have two mills and six gold projects under way in Abitibi." With respect to Nemaska Lithium, the restructuring process continues. PricewaterhouseCoopers produced its fifth report this week, but only on the sale of the Monarques shares. In its previous report of April 9, the Monitor reported that 146 parties potentially interested in the relaunch of Nemaska Lithium had been contacted. As of April 6, 22 had confirmed their interest. However, PwC did not update this information in its last report. Interested companies or financial partners had until April 17 to submit non-binding letters of intent. The relaunch of Nemaska Lithium is being closely monitored in Shawinigan, where the start-up of a processing plant worth more than $800 million is planned for 2023.