Leo Lithium Limited announced it has executed an agreement for port services, including product unloading, storage and shiploading, of Goulamina Lithium Project (Goulamina) spodumene concentrate product (Product) at the Abidjan Port, a major West African deep water port. The agreement between Lithium du Mali SA (LMSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Leo Lithium, and Terminal Vraquier Abidjan (SEA-Invest), secures storage for the Goulamina product at Abidjan Port for a period of 10 years (Term) (together, the Agreement). Under the Agreement, Leo Lithium has secured warehouses with a footprint of 9,000 sqm for Product storage directly on the wharf of the Port of Abidjan. Leo Lithium's initial assessments
indicate this equates to approximately 60,000 tonnes of Product storage. The agreement stipulates a minimum product throughput of 250,000 tonnes per annum however there is no upper limit on quantities which can be exported. The Agreement includes handling unit rates and loading rates which are in line with cost forecasting in the DFS Update. There is no capex required from Leo Lithium as SEA-Invest will be responsible for making investments to upgrade the warehouses and make it suitable for Product storage. The facilities are well established and minor upgrades will be completed to enable product receival and export from 1 July 2023, allowing for a potential acceleration of the Goulamina project timeline. LMSA and SEA-Invest will finalise and execute a full Operations Agreement over the period through to H1 2023 although this Agreement locks in the key terms. An option for extension will be included in the Operations Agreement, in line with SEA-Invest's port concession with the Abidjan Port Authority. The Port of Abidjan is a major West African deep water port with significant bulk mineral handling capability. The warehouse secured by the Company is shown in Figure 1 and the adjacent Berth 14 has capacity for handymax sized ships up to 55 kt, well capable of meeting the preliminary planned shipment size of 30,000 tonnes. Abidjan is located approximately 1,000km from Goulamina and Leo Lithium intends to truck Product to the Port of Abidjan, using logistics contractors, resulting in minimal capex for the Company. SEA-Invest is a privately-owned international port operator with 24 sites in 8 countries and over 5,500 employees. SEA-Invest own the concession for the bulk carrier terminal in Abidjan with quay-side storage and have deep West African material handling, product storage, ship consignment and logistics experience, having operated in the region since 2006.