Yes this Zimbabwe project promoted by a major mining company is the exception to difficulty in getting things funded rule.
The project is talking about having some seriously special metrics so its not a complete surprise they have managed to crack the funding of projects problem. Articles around July last year indicate the Sandawana mine project was targeting a resource of approaching 200mt and noted that if they took the cut-off grade at 0.5% then they may miss that target but have grade of ~1.6%. The Sandawana project was being progressed at a massive rate including at least 33 drilling rigs onsite at one time. From a Feb 2024 article they had mined and stockpiled over 900 000 tonnes of high-grade lithium ore. Knowing there's a sizeable ore stockpile before even commencing construction of a concentrator does derisk the project a bit. Do I believe all of this, I'm not sure but Sandawana is not an ordinary smaller deposit.
The difficult in getting other projects across the line into construction appears likely to create another swing in lithium cycle and probable shortfalls in a few years. The critical question will be who can get to the start line to capture this next phase of higher prices and more available financing?
