Infinity Lithium raises A$15 million in strongly supported placement to advance Europe supply strategy

Infinity Lithium Corporation Ltd (ASX:INF) (FRA:3PM) has raised A$15 million through a strongly supported placement and will issue more than 79.47 million shares at A$0.19 per share to advance the San José Lithium Project in Spain and its integrated supply strategy in Europe. Firm commitments were received in excess of the maximum placement amount and the placement was well supported by European, other international and domestic institutional and sophisticated investors. The placement will significantly strengthen INF's balance sheet and the company is now fully financed to complete a feasibility study for the San José project which is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2021 and will incorporate outcomes from the test-work program. Funds will also facilitate the submission of mining licence applications and environmental impact assessments. “Accelerating feasibility study work” Infinity managing director and CEO Ryan Parkin said: “Infinity is very pleased to have received such strong support from new and existing investors as the company advances the San José Lithium Project through to FID.  “The funds raised in this placement will be applied to accelerate the class 3 feasibility study work due for completion later in 2021.”  The company will also commence activities to progress phase 2 under the project agreement for the development of a pilot plant. INF is expected to settle the placement on February 24, 2021, and quotation of the placement shares is expected to take place on February 25, 2021. Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited acted as sole lead manager to the placement. “Support for EV transition in Europe” Parkin said that the overwhelming demand for the placement showed that the international investment community understood that the inevitable, widespread transition to electric mobility would result in critical shortages in lithium-ion battery materials.  He said: “EU policy is aligned with the goals of the European Battery Alliance to develop a fully integrated European battery supply chain.  “Long-life projects such as San José are recognised as being crucial to achieving these goals and are ideally positioned to benefit from low-cost EU funding such as the €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund.” EU recovery and resilience facility On February 10, the European Commission announced the European Parliament's approval of a Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) under the Next Generation EU (Coronavirus Recovery Funding) totalling €750 billion. The RRF represents €312.5 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans (totalling €672.5 billion) of the Coronavirus Recovery Funding package. Execution of the RRF aligns investment towards achieving the carbon neutrality by 2050 with a minimum of 37% of expenditure on investments and reforms contained in each national recovery and resilience plan to support climate objectives. Coronavirus Recovery Fund application The company has progressed an application for funds in Spain as part of the KIC InnoEnergy SE (EIT InnoEnergy) led Battchain consortium submission for €1.2b of coronavirus recovery funds. Battchain is focused on the development of industrial projects in the Spanish automotive sector and San José is aligned to Spain’s recovery and resilience plan to support climate objectives through potentially providing battery grade lithium hydroxide, a critical requirement in both the EU and Spain development of a fully integrated lithium-ion battery value chain.