The company yesterday closed a C$280 million bought deal private placement and $80 million private placement, both announced last week, saying the latter was with Ressources Québec acting as mandatory for the government.

It also closed the US$350 million bond offering and said the $72 million from SoftBank Group's previously closed private placement was released from escrow.

 

The remainder of the package is the US$150 million stream agreement with Orion Mine Finance II.

 

The package will fund the construction, commissioning, working capital and reserve funds for the Whabouchi lithium mine and Shawinigan electrochemical plant, designed to produce lithium salts for the growing lithium-ion battery market.

 

Nemaska expects construction and commissioning to take 15 months for the mine and 24 months for plant.

 

As the mine will be ready about a year before the plant, the company decided to be "opportunistic" and sell its spodumene concentrate in the interim, aiming to generate revenue by the last quarter of 2019.

 

It signed a spodumene concentrate supply agreement covering this interim period earlier this week, with Japan-based global trader Hanwa which was acting as agent for China's General Lithium Corp.

 

Nemaska had signed an in-principle agreement last month to supply up to 5,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide annually over five years to European battery developer Northvolt AB.

 

Shares in the company closed C2c higher to 98c but remain down almost 60% year-to-date.