Deutsche Rohstoff contributes Australian lithium exploration projects to listed entity
- Deutsche Rohstoff holds 70% in joint venture with SensOre
- Australia listed SensOre is rebranded as Premier1 Lithium
- 70% stake in joint venture to be acquired by Premier1 Lithium
- Deutsche Rohstoff to receive 19.9% and 26 million options in Premier1 Lithium
- Australian investors commit for AUD 3 million in Premier1 Lithium
Deutsche Rohstoff AG (WKN A0XYG7/ISIN DE000A0XYG76) and its Australian partner SensOre Ltd (ASX: S3N) will contribute 100% of their joint subsidiary Exploration Ventures AI Pty Ltd ("EXAI") to the listed company SensOre. SensOre plans to privatize its technology business through a demerger and rebrand the listed company into Premier1 Lithium with the planned stock exchange symbol P1L.
As part of the transaction, Deutsche Rohstoff will contribute its 70% stake in EXAI to Premier1 Lithium in return for 19.9% of the shares in the listed company and 26 million options. If the options are exercised, Deutsche Rohstoff's stake may increase to around 29%. As a result, Deutsche Rohstoff can hold up to 29% of the listed and fully financed Premier1 Lithium instead of 70% of the privately held EXAI joint venture. In addition, Deutsche Rohstoff as the largest shareholder, will receive a seat on the board of Premier1 Lithium, which will enable it to continue to assist the further development of the projects and its previous investments.
The focus of Premier1 Lithium will be on the further exploration of the projects identified by Deutsche Rohstoff and SensOre. As part of a fully subscribed placement, AUD 3 million was raised from institutional and professional investors, who will own a 34% stake in Premier1 Lithium once approved.
In the past twelve months, the EXAI joint venture has succeeded in identifying and securing seven attractive exploration projects. Initial field work led to the discovery of pegmatites with surface grades of up to 1.25% Li2 O at the Abbotts North project, among others.
Due to the high prospectivity of the projects, Deutsche Rohstoff and SensOre have decided to accelerate further exploration and to finance this via the capital market, as is customary in Australia and in the metals exploration sector. The initial focus is on a maiden drilling program at Abbotts North to determine the strike and depth extent of the lithium mineralization within the mapped pegmatites. In addition, further surface mapping and sampling is planned in 2024 on Abbotts North and the other projects Yalgoo and Yalgoo West as well as Montague and Gecko North in order to identify further drill targets.
In addition to the approval of the already fully subscribed placement, the transaction still requires the approval of SensOre shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled for 17 January 2024, as well as regulatory and stock exchange approvals. Overall, this is expected by the end of January 2024.
The contribution of the 70% stake in EXAI to SensOre and the rebranding as Premier1 Lithium enables significantly faster access to the capital market compared to a traditional IPO. Deutsche Rohstoff also retains rights to use the SensOre technology through Premier1 Lithium, which played a key role in identifying the existing projects and can also be applied to other areas outside Western Australia.
Jan-Philipp Weitz, CEO, said: "We started the cooperation with SensOre in 2022 as a complement to our oil & gas business and have since been very successful in identifying various exploration projects. With the exchange of our joint venture stake for shares in Premier1 Lithium, we are able to advance further exploration together with investors and at the same time mark a successful completion of the first phase of our investment. If future exploration is successful, the stake in Premier1 Lithium can create significant long-term value. At the same time, this development shows that we are able to develop projects in the metals sector in a fast and efficient manner."
Mannheim, December 18, 2023
Deutsche Rohstoff identifies, develops and sells attractive raw material deposits in North America, Australia and Europe. The focus is on the development of oil and gas deposits in the USA. Metals such as gold and tungsten complete the portfolio. Further information can be found at www.rohstoff.de
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