ATOME Energy, the green hydrogen and fertiliser company, has released an update on its operations including developments at its planned 445MW facility in Paraguay

The Front-End Engineering Design (‘FEED’) study is nearing completion, and advanced discussions and negotiations are currently ongoing in relation to the EPC contract with the main and specialist sub-contractors, led on ATOME’s behalf by the Owner’s Engineer, AECOM, the international engineering consultancy. Completion of the EPC contract is a prerequisite for taking final investment decision (“FID”).

On the ground, following a thorough process, the Environmental Licence has now been granted to ATOME by Paraguay’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. This is a key project document which gives ATOME the rights to commence preparation and clearance of the Villeta site and enables all necessary permitting from construction to operation of the production facility.

In addition, the grant of the tax-free zone has passed through all the necessary inter-governmental processes and awaits only signing off by Presidential decree which is expected shortly.

In respect of debt financing, significant expressions of interest have already been received from both Development Finance Institutions and international banks. Whilst work continues in relation to this, the strong level of interest shown to date has demonstrated the financeability of the Company’s first industrial scale green fertiliser project and the Board is increasingly confident that the required debt financing component can be achieved.

It is worth repeating that the debt financing discussed is at the project level which would provide significant value to ATOME shareholders. We will provide further updates to shareholders on the timing of all aspects of the project financing.

Olivier Mussat, CEO, commented:

“One by one, milestones continue to be achieved by ATOME as our flagship world-scale green fertiliser project at Villeta, Paraguay proceeds.

“The critical environmental licence has been obtained, a mandatory step in the project development, opening the door to move to site clearance as the first step of operations, with the additional benefit of enabling the formal decree for tax-free zone status to be granted in the near future.

“The level and nature of the significant interest in the debt component of the Villeta project finance is very encouraging, demonstrating international as well as local financing interest in our project which has both strong economic viability as well as clear development impact thanks to its green credentials.

“It is an increasingly busy time for ATOME and we will continue to keep shareholders appraised of our progress.”