After listening to Bernard in the latest interview, I got the impression that the total cost is going to be closer to and around US$2 billion, meaning that the JV partners may need to come up with an additional $500 million, so Sibanye are probably looking at needing to chip in US$750 million approximately.
The way I interpreted it was as follows;
US$1 billion from USA govt.
US$500 million from Sibanye for 50% stake.
US$500 million additional funding split 50/50 between Ioneer and Sibanye.
I'm not sure Sibanye are up for this amount, they've just taken out a Euro $500 million loan for their Finland lithium project. They will be drowning in huge debts, with no chance of beginning repayments for at least 3 years, and probably closer to 4 or 5. The risk is large for them.
It's going to be a close run thing, and I'd expect Sibanye to be delaying any decision for some time, and at least until they can work something out with their banks and investors, and for these amounts of money, it usually takes plenty of time.
I would not be surprised, if on the advice of their banks and financiers, Sibanye opts to try and dilute their share of the project down to 25% or 30%, buy selling some back to Ioneer, or by selling half of their 50% stake off to another large entity.
It's getting interesting.
Gw
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