Trident Royalties Plc (AIM:TRR, FSX:5KV), the growth-focused mining royalty and streaming company, is pleased to note the recent announcement1 by Lithium Americas Corp. (“Lithium Americas” or “LAC”) regarding positive progress at the Thacker Pass Lithium Project (“Thacker Pass” or the “Project”), in Nevada, USA. Trident holds a 60% interest in a gross revenue royalty (“GRR”)2 over the entirety of the Project, further details of which are set out below (the “Thacker Pass Royalty” or the “Royalty”).

Lithium Americas has released a significant update to the Thacker Pass Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) – more than doubling the size of the MRE – and set out technical inputs to the ongoing Feasibility Study and Project timelines.

The Thacker Pass MRE has increased to 13.7Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent (“LCE”) grading 2,231 parts per million lithium (“ppm Li”) of Measured and Indicated (“M&I”) Resources and 4.4Mt of LCE grading 2,112ppm Li of Inferred Resources. The Feasibility Study is now considering an optimised mine plan targeting Phase 1 capacity of 40,000 tonnes per annum (“tpa”) lithium carbonate (+30% increase over the 30,000tpa LCE targeted for Phase 1 in the original Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”)) and a Phase 2 total capacity of 80,000tpa LCE (+30% increase over the 60,000tpa LCE targeted for Phase 2 in the original PFS).

Adam Davidson, Chief Executive Officer of Trident commented:

“This latest update from Lithium Americas more than doubles to the lithium Resource estimate for Thacker Pass which has a very positive read through for Trident’s potential future earnings from this project, which is the largest lithium reserve in the United States. The ongoing Feasibility Study is now considering an optimised mine plan targeting an initial Phase 1 of 40,000tpa lithium carbonate with a potential Phase 2 expansion to target total capacity of 80,000tpa lithium carbonate – a significant increase over the Pre-Feasibility targets of 30,000tpa and 60,000tpa for Phases 1 and 2 respectively. This comes at a time when LCE prices have more than doubled over the course of 2021. In addition, Lithium Americas reports the permitting process to be on track, with a final decision expected in Q1/2022 and with the planned pilot plant expected to become operational during H1/2022.

“Under the revised production profile targets announced by LAC (but retaining the PFS LCE price of US$12,000/tonne), Phase 1 royalty revenue attributable to Trident would increase from approximately US$3.8 million per annum to +US$5 million, with Phase 2 royalty revenue increasing from approximately US$7.6 million per annum to +US$10 million; noting that the current LCE price is now >US$25,000 per tonne.”

News in full

CEO Adam Davidson recently provided an update of the business and its strategy below