Today it was announced that Liontown Resources has lost it's...

Today it was announced that Liontown Resources has lost it's $760 million debt funding package. The company cited reduced lithium prices and especially reduction in the independent forecast pricing for spodumene as factors affecting the debt package. Discussions on a revised smaller debt facility reflecting the project review have commenced. The company still aims for first production from it's Kathleen Valley lithium project by the middle of the year, focussed on delivering the project on schedule and on budget. (They have already fully drawn down a $300 million project funding package from Ford). The project review of the planned expansion and associated ramping up of Kathleen Valley to conserve capital and reduce long-term funding requirements involves exploring options to defer the timing of the underground development work, sequencing adjustment to the mine plan and potential cost optimisations.

The LTR share price is currently down 20% at 95c.

This is grim news considering the quality of the Kathleen Valley project and indicates that even top quality lithium projects may have difficulty attracting funding in the current low price lithium environment.

I agree with a previous prediction of Fingers that our DFS is likely to show a Capex revised up from about $800 million to about a billion dollars.
An increase of this magnitude would quite closely mirror the Canadian experience. There the capex in the metal mining subsector increased by 10% in 2022 with a further expected 11% increase in 2023.

One can only hope that the relevant European funding agencies take a long-term view of the Cinovec project and do not suffer from the cold feet syndrome!