Rock Tech Lithium has signed an agreement worth up to US$80 million with a Swiss-based company to supply them with material mined at its planned mine near Beardmore.
BEARDMORE — A Canadian-German company looking to build a lithium mine and a processing plant east of Thunder Bay says it has secured a deal that will help finance their construction.
Rock Tech Lithium announced a deal worth up to US$80 million with Geneva-based commodities trading multinational Transamine SA that will see Rock Tech get that money up front in exchange for the spodumene concentrate to be extracted from its still-to-be-built lithium mine at Georgia Lake near Beardmore.
Spodumene concentrate is a processed lithium-bearing rock that can be further processed into compounds like lithium hydroxide for use in products like lithium-ion batteries.
“It is significant because we are locking in a binding offtake agreement,” Rock Tech CEO Mirco Wojnarowicz said in an interview on Thursday. “We are securing the demand that is justifying building our mining project, even before we have started our definitive feasibility study.”
“That is a major sign that the project is in demand in the industry.”
Some steps still have to be completed before the money begins to actually flow, he said, “but it is a very strong sign because it's bindingly committed.”
The company also plans to build a facility to process the materials mined from the Beardmore area in Red Rock. Rock Tech chair Dirk Harbecke told reporters in July he expects the Georgia Lake mine to be in production in the middle of 2028, with a refinery in Red Rock, planned for the former mill property there, in full production a year later.
A media release announcing the July 24 deal between Rock Tech and Transamine called the pact “a long-term commercial pathway” for their efforts. Company officials said the deal will see Transamine purchase spodumene concentrate from Rock Tech over an initial seven-year term starting in 2028.
That can be renewed annually through mutual agreement for up to five additional years.
The first year would see 50,000 dry metric tonnes of spodumene delivered, ramping up to 100,000 dry metric tonnes per year after that.
The deal also includes provisions that would allow for the supply of further-refined battery-grade lithium products, like lithium hydroxide and/or lithium carbonate.
Wojnarowicz said the mine site is well-situated, being off the Trans-Canada Highway and with high-voltage power lines easily accessible.
The company has also received a commitment of up to $1.4 million from the federal government’s critical minerals infrastructure fund toward a road from the Trans-Canada to the planned mine site.
“The infrastructure is basically taken care of,” Wojnarowicz said. “Usually, infrastructure is consuming a lot of time and money in order to be built out.
Construction at the mine is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2027, Rock Tech officials said.
“From my point of view, if we look at what Canada is doing and the programs that are being set up, both on the federal and provincial levels, and trying or aiming to establish Canada as the most trusted critical mineral supplier to the G7, I think you have to show that you're also able to build projects,” Wojnarowicz said.
“That's where we want to play a major role … and that's where also the speed to market is essential that we are proposing.”
