Austro-American Companies Sign Agreement To Develop Ghana’s US$1.55billion Lithium

Following its discovery of lithium in Ghana, an Australian company, IronRidge Resources has entered an agreement with an American company, Piedmont Lithium, to accelerate the development of the resource.

The nature of the agreement is a conditional binding one entailing the two companies fully funding by the Ewoyaa Lithium Project to production according to reports.

The development is expected to make Ghana the first West African country to be a lithium producer. Lithium is the most important ingredient in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras and electric vehicles. 

Also known as the Cape Coast Lithium Project, Ewoyaa is believed to potentially hold world-class lithium grades and drill intersections.

IronRidge has since been buzzing with excitement over the agreement with Piedmont. Vincent Mascolo has noted thus, “with Piedmont’s established relationships with US-based automakers, this is an outstanding opportunity for IronRidge to fully fund its industry-leading Ewoyaa Lithium Project through to production.”

“With the support and investment of Piedmont, along with the African mining expertise of IronRidge’s major shareholder Assore Limited, we look forward with great excitement to developing this industry-leading asset”, he further said

He continues that, “Piedmont is developing a world-class integrated lithium business in the U.S. and will bring vast experience and expertise to the partnership as we prepare to fast-track Ewoyaa to production. This pathway to production transaction removes funding risks for IronRidge and its shareholders at a time where surety of supply to the enormous and rapidly growing North American EV and stored energy industry sectors is paramount”, he pointed out.

 On his part, Keith Philips, President and Chief Executive Officer of Piedmont is quoted as saying, “Piedmont is delighted to be partnering with IronRidge to develop its outstanding Ewoya Lithium Project in Ghana.

“We consider Ewoyaa to be among one of the world’s most promising projects…Few hard-rock lithium projects worldwide can boast the proximity to existing operational infrastructure, lithium grade and a simple Dense Media Separation-only process route that will require very low upfront capital expenditure,” he said.

It is not exactly clear what stake accrues to the government of Ghana in the new mining operation.