ASX company Tivan has struck funding agreements worth $117 million with Japan’s Sumitomo and an unnamed Australian family office to pursue development of the Speewah fluorite project.
ASX company Tivan has struck funding agreements worth $117 million with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and an unnamed Australian family office to pursue development of the Speewah fluorite project.
The agreement with Sumitomo has been finalised after nearly a year of negotiations.
The Japanese group has agreed to invest up to $60.3 million via three tranches in an incorporated joint venture.
It will start with a $5.3 million equity investment to help fund a feasibility study into the project, located in WA’s Kimberley region, to be followed by a definitive feasibility study in 2026.
The final $50 million tranche will be made upon a final investment decision and would give Sumitomo a 22.5 per cent stake in the joint venture.
Concurrently, Tivan has struck funding agreements with an Australian family office it says has assets in excess of $1 billion.
The family office has subscribed for $5 million of Tivan shares at an issue price of 10.5 cents and escrowed the shares until FID.
Tivan has also executed a non-binding term sheet with the family office to inject $51.3 million of equity into the project joint venture to fund the estimated project equity requirement at FID.
A pre-feasibility study released in July last year estimated the project would require $236 million of capital expenditure to bring it to production.
The agreements announced today come after Tivan was awarded a $7.4 million cash grant under the Australian Government’s International Partnerships in Critical Minerals Program to fund completion of the feasibility study.
Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson acknowledged his team for their commitment and resolve.
“Through much hard work we have taken a company from a zero-start to the top of the world in two years,” he said.
“This is an unprecedented achievement that belongs to Tivan’s (Darwin-based) team.
“Tivan is now uniquely placed to deliver a transformative project that is strongly aligned to national strategic priorities and community expectations, one which will deliver durable economic and social opportunities for the Traditional Owners of the East Kimberley.”
Speewah will be Australia’s first fluorite mining and processing operation to produce acid grade fluorspar for export.
There is currently no domestic fluorspar or fluorite production in Australia, with China, Mexico, South Africa and Mongolia the largest producers globally.
Speewah will supply commercial grade fluorspar, a critical feedstock to semiconductor and electric vehicle battery manufacturing to Asian markets.
The project is located 100 kilometres south of Wyndham in the East Kimberley region.
Tivan also responded today to an ASX query by confirming that Mr Wilson had posted details of exploration results on his X account without the authorisation of the company’s board.
The company’s shares closed nine per cent higher today at nine cents.
