(Kitco News) - On Monday, E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL), Alberta's leading lithium developer and extraction technology innovator, announced it has received a C$27M investment from the Government of Canada's Innovation, Science and Economic Development's Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).
The company said that the SIF's objective is to spur innovation for a better Canada by providing funding for large projects and national innovation ecosystems.
"With today's announcement, E3 Lithium joins such companies as Rio Tinto, Stellantis and General Motors who have recently received funding under this program," the company noted in a press release.
According to the company's statement, the SIF investment supports all aspects of E3's resource and technology development including drilling, piloting of E3's proprietary ion-exchange technology for lithium extraction, process development and engineering including downstream lithium hydroxide conversion.
The investment also supports additional development testing during the feasibility phase and the engineering and design of a definitive feasibility study.
"All eligible costs under the program are reimbursed to E3 at 33.94% up to a total of $27M. E3 can immediately apply for all eligible expenses as of the initial application date in August 2021, which includes the costs associated with E3's 2022 drilling program. E3 expects its first reimbursement from SIF to exceed $4M," the company said.
It added, "The SIF contribution is conditionally repayable if and when E3 earns gross revenue from commercial operations. Repayable at a rate of 1% of annual revenue over a period of 20 years, repayments are limited to a maximum of 1.4 times the amount of SIF contribution disbursed."
E3 Lithium is a development company with total of 24.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent inferred mineral resources in Alberta. As outlined in E3's preliminary economic assessment, the Clearwater lithium project has an NPV8% of USD 1.1 Billion with a 32% IRR pre-tax and USD 820 Million with a 27% IRR after-tax.
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