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Ensorcia Metals will invest US $450M in lithium carbonate plants in Argentina and Chile
The international group Ensorcia Metals Corporation plans to invest US $450 million for the exploration of salt flats and the construction of two battery-grade lithium carbonate plants in Chile and Argentina.
Dan Layton, president of Ensorcia Metals Corporation, informed EcoMedios that the company seeks to finance the development of both projects with a mix of equity issuance and debt, bank loans and cash injection.
Layton explained that it is two independent plants with different funding models for each country, for the characteristics of the salt flats.
Of the projected investment, US $220 million will go to Chile for the exploration and construction of a plant with the capacity to produce 22,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually. “The company is negotiating with some partners to finance the development of the factory with the issuance of shares privately,” he said.
Although he did not specify when they will start the work, he announced that it will be “in the next few months” and will take between 12 and 16 months. They plan to start operations in late 2019 or early 2020.
The executive did not specify the name of the salt flat that will explode because the negotiations are not yet finished.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, Ensorcia negotiates with owners of some salt flats to acquire the whole or the controlling stake of the facilities where it expects to build the plant.
For this second plant, with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year and which it expects to start building in the first semester of 2019, an investment of US $225 million is contemplated. The amount which includes the exploration of the mine would be financed through loans in international banks and debt issuance.
“Both factories will operate with a new technology that does not use the classic process of evaporation basins,” explains Layton. For the generation of energy, the Chilean plant will run off natural gas, while the plant in Argentina will use liquefied natural gas
