Western Lithium to Acquire Rocky Mountain Resources for Vanadium Resources
24 October 2009
Western Lithium Canada Corporation and Rocky Mountain Resources Corp. have entered into a non-binding letter of intent pursuant to which Western Lithium proposes to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Rocky Mountain.
Rocky Mountain’s primary asset is the Gibellini development stage vanadium project in Nevada. Vanadium has the potential to become an important element for future battery chemistries together with lithium-ion chemistries. The companies believe that a combination of Nevada based strategic metals for applications in electrical storage and other industrial uses will provide operational and corporate synergies, and accretive value to shareholders.
Rocky Mountain’s Board of Directors have approved the proposed merger and upon entering into a definitive agreement will enter into specific support agreements agreeing to vote their shares in favour of the merger.
Completion of the transaction is conditional upon satisfactory completion of due diligence, the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement and receipt of Rocky Mountain shareholder approval as well as other customary conditions and regulatory approvals. The special shareholder meeting of Rocky Mountain to vote on the transaction is expected to be held in early January 2010. An information circular and other related documents containing the terms of the Arrangement will be mailed to Rocky Mountain shareholders in late November. The transaction is expected to close in January 2010.
Western Lithium is developing the Kings Valley, Nevada lithium deposit into potentially one of the world’s largest strategic, scalable and reliable sources (based on a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate) of high quality lithium carbonate. Western Lithium is positioning itself as a major US-based supplier to support the rising global demand for lithium carbonate that is expected from the increased use of mobile electronics and hybrid/electric vehicles.
At closing, all Rocky Mountain common shares will be automatically exchanged for Western Lithium shares on the basis of 0.4032 Western Lithium shares for each Rocky Mountain share. All warrants of Rocky Mountain will be exchanged for similar warrants of Western Lithium, based on the same exchange ratio. The consideration to Rocky Mountain shareholders pursuant to the Arrangement represents approximately, a 43% premium over Rocky Mountain’s closing price on 22 October 2009, based on Western Lithium’s 20 day weighted average share price on the TSX-V of $1.24 per share. The total number of shares Western Lithium would issue under the transaction is approximately 6,749,091.
Any idea how many million tonnes those two could produce over the next 20 years?
Posted by: HarveyD | 24 October 2009 at 08:26 AM
Harvey,
It must be a concern that we will be using a lot of fossil fuels in the 'race to' to de carbonise.
Out of the frying pan..or some pain for much good.
OTOH, if (the same) resources divert from high carbon schemes to lower that must be as step in the right direction.
Posted by: arnold | 24 October 2009 at 02:33 PM
Lithium carbonate will of course need to be refined to release carbon. So much for the notion that the planet will be saved if only we no longer are under the heel of big oil but big lithium. It will be interesting to see Western Lithium morph into the new Exxon Mobil.
There might even be an opportunity for making some money.
Good investing.
Posted by: Mannstein | 24 October 2009 at 07:10 PM
It seems that USA and Canada (combined) could extract as much as 6 million tonnes of Lithium equivalent from currently known low grade reserves.
OTOH, mining very low grade ore is costly and could not be extracted economically in many places. More deposits will certainly be found in the nest 20 years as demand goes up.
World lithium known reserves are presently between 35 M to 60 M tonnes. Lithium is present in 30+ countries, but Bolivia, Chile, Agentina, USA, China, Zaire, Russia, Canada, Australia have most of the currently know reserves. Current production is around 60 000 tonnes/year.
Posted by: HarveyD | 27 October 2009 at 10:01 AM