JOURDAN RESOURCES INC. (“Jourdan”, “Jourdan Resources”, or the “Company“) is pleased to announce that it has signed an earn-in agreement and joint venture agreement (the “Agreement”) with Sayona Mining Limited’s (“Sayona”) subsidiary, North American Lithium Inc., in relation to the Company’s Vallée lithium project. The Company is also pleased to announce that Sayona’s subsidiary, Sayona Québec Inc., has entered into an agreement with the Company to acquire 27,000,000 common shares of the Company (the “Common Shares”), representing approximately 9.9865% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares (on a post-closing basis), at a price of $0.0556 per Common Share for gross proceeds of $1,501,200 (the “Private Placement”).
The Private Placement is expected to close within two (2) business days. Upon closing of the Private Placement, Sayona will have the right to nominate one director to the Company’s board of directors. All securities issued in connection with the Private Placement will be subject to a statutory hold period of four-months and one day. Completion of the Private Placement is subject to a number of conditions, including without limitation, receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval. No finder’s fees will be paid in connection with the Private Placement. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Private Placement for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Rene Bharti, Jourdan’s chief executive officer, commented, “We are tremendously excited to begin what we feel will be a long-term partnership with Sayona. Given the incredible progress they have made at the NAL mine, we anticipate that this partnership will allow Jourdan to advance the exploration and development of its Vallée lithium project toward production without having to incur many of the associated costs. Indeed, we understand that Sayona has complete infrastructure in place to begin lithium production from its NAL properties in Q1 of next year. We are very proud to be working with our neighbours, and we look forward to welcoming a top Sayona executive to the Jourdan board in order to further cement our partnership.”
“We are excited to start a new chapter in the lifecycle of Jourdan Resources by joining forces with Sayona and neighbouring NAL”, says Dr. Andy Rompel, Exec. Chairman. “We believe that this partnership will be tremendously beneficial mutually as we anticipate that both parties can contribute significantly to the advance of exploration and potential resource estimation on our flagship project, Vallée. We expect that this partnership will increase the speed of exploration for Jourdan, as well as give us the unique ability to process our ore through the NAL plant.”
Under the Agreement, NAL has the right to earn up to a 51% stake in 28 claims within the Vallée project, which includes pegmatite targets located close to and along strike from NAL’s orebody. This is based on NAL spending C$4 million within the first year to earn a 25% interest and an additional C$6M within two years to earn a further 25% interest. NAL also has the right to increase its interest by an additional 1%, to an aggregate 51% interest, by completing a feasibility study and arranging funding for the construction of a mine at Vallée.
In connection with the Agreement, Jourdan has transferred 20 claims outright to Sayona to provide for potential future infrastructure expansion at the NAL mine and its processing facility.
Sayona’s Managing Director, Brett Lynch, stated that the Agreement provided a substantial boost for NAL and its future production potential. “Sayona continues to review opportunities for expansion and this earn-in agreement is an excellent opportunity to swiftly expand NAL’s potential resource base, paving the way for an increase in NAL’s future mine production capacity,” he said.
He continued, “With mineralised spodumene pegmatite dykes previously mined by NAL continuing directly onto Jourdan’s claims, we are keen to quickly launch new drilling. Significantly, the additional leases acquired under this agreement will also allow for increased flexibility and optimisation of the NAL mine design, production and infrastructure.”
DLA Piper (Canada) LLP acted as legal counsel to Jourdan. Desjardins Capital Markets acted as exclusive financial adviser and McCarthy Tétrault LLP acted as legal counsel to Sayona for the transaction.
Vallée Lithium Project
The Vallée lithium project comprises 48 claims covering 1,997 ha, closely neighbouring the NAL mine tenure with 20 of the leases located within 500 m of the mine tenure boundary. Known pegmatites have been recorded in past exploration and are orientated along strike from the NAL orebody. Critically, the tenure secures the prospective granodiorite host and its contact zone, which are important ore controls in the NAL deposit.
More broadly within the Jourdan claims, some 14 pegmatite occurrences are recorded in government data, indicating the high exploration upside for discovery of mineralisation for blending into the NAL operation.
Exploration work, including geochemistry, geophysics and an aggressive drilling program, is being planned by Sayona. Sayona’s exploration team has already confirmed multiple high potential target areas for drill testing.