Patriot Battery Metals secures $124m investment from Albemarle to advance Corvette lithium project

Patriot Battery Metals (ASX: PMT) has reached an agreement with global commodity giant Albemarle that has it ideally placed to move ahead with its world-class CV5 lithium project in James Bay, Quebec, Canada.

Patriot and Albemarle have reached a subscription agreement which will see the latter provide Patriot with approximately $124 million via a private placement.

Finalisation of the agreement will lead to Albemarle owning approximately 4.9% of Patriot’s issued and outstanding common shares on a fully- diluted in-the-money basis, or 6.4% on a non-diluted, issued and outstanding basis.

Growth plans in place

Patriot has already identified plans to utilise the capital injection to accelerate development activities at the company’s exciting Corvette Lithium Project in James Bay.

“We could not be more pleased to have welcomed Albemarle to invest in Patriot. I believe both Patriot and Albemarle can be a big part of building out the required front-end to the lithium chemicals supply chain in North America and Europe over the coming years,” said Patriots’ president and chief executive officer, Blair Way.

“The additional funding will allow us to more aggressively advance the Corvette Property through drilling, permitting, study work and more.”

CV5 named at number one lithium spodumene resource

The Albemarle agreement came one day after Patriot declared it had confirmed it held the largest lithium pegmatite resource in the Northern Americas.

The company’s vice president of Exploration, Darren Smith, said new results have established the CV5 spodumene pegmatite as the largest lithium pegmatite mineral resource in the Americas and the 8th largest globally.

A maiden resource estimate for the CV5 spodumene at the Corvette project identified 109.2 million tonnes at 1.42% lithium oxide and 160 parts per million (ppm) Tantalum pentoxide at the inferred level.

“This maiden mineral resource estimate at CV5 is the culmination of an aggressive 20-month drill campaign that kicked off with our discovery hole in fall 2021 and is nothing less than a team effort to get us here,” Mr Smith said.

Upside to be tested

He said there is significant upside still to be uncovered, with the resource open at both ends and to depth along a large portion of its length providing a clear path forward for further resource expansion.

“Further, there are multiple known spodumene pegmatite clusters yet to be drill tested at the Property and more than 20 km of prospective trend yet to be explored. In the case of CV13, the 2022 and 2023 drill programs are anticipated to underpin a maiden mineral resource estimate in 2024 at that spodumene pegmatite cluster. We believe we have only just begun to demonstrate the scale of the lithium mineralised pegmatite system at the Corvette Property.”

Albemarle has confirmed it will be firmly behind Patriot in its Corvette growth plans.

“We look forward to collaborating with Patriot to better understand the Corvette property and the opportunities this project represents for the North American battery materials supply chain,” said Alexander Thompson, vice president of lithium resources at Albemarle.

The Corvette property hosts the CV5 spodumene pegmatite along with other multiple spodumene pegmatite clusters that remain to be drill tested, as well as more than 20 km of prospective trend that remain to be assessed.

Welcome news for James Bay Minerals

Patriot Battery Metals’ news is a real lift for its neighbours in the “red hot” James Bay area, including newcomer James Bay Minerals.

The company has identified a number of prime targets in Quebec which it is planning to test when it completes a current $6 million initial public offering (IPO).

The company has accumulated one of the largest lithium exploration tenures in the James Bay region of Quebec – with 224km of holdings located within key greenstone belts and along major regional faults.

The initial focus will include the Joule, Aero and Aqua targets within the large La Grande project area. Notably those three targets are located along strike of the highly prospective Corvette and Cancet deposits currently being explored by Patriot Battery Metals and Winsome Resources (ASX: WR1) respectively.