Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) has appointed London-based HCF International Advisers Limited, in partnership with Grant Thornton Australia, to assist with evaluating and arranging the debt financing to support the construction of the Australian Vanadium Project in Western Australia.
HCF is a leading independent corporate finance advisory boutique with strong technical and financial expertise and is mostly focused on the global natural resources sectors and providing advice across the complete life cycle of projects.
Grant Thornton, one of the world’s leading organisations of independent assurance, tax and advisory firms, provides a broad range of services to mining companies, with cross-disciplined, internationally focused teams in Australia.
Australian Vanadium Project is in Western Australia’s Murchison District and is one of the highest-grade vanadium projects being advanced globally.
The project hosts a JORC-compliant 208.2 million tonnes resource at 0.74% vanadium pentoxide, within which is a high-grade zone of 87.9-million-tonnes grading 1.06% vanadium pentoxide.
Level of experience and relationships
AVL managing director Vincent Algar said: “The HCF team in London, working in partnership with the team at Grant Thornton in Sydney, will provide AVL with a level of experience and relationships in this key area of project finance that can see the company through to full funding, construction and production.
“Validation by external experts is the key to success in funding for large-scale, long-life projects such as the Australian Vanadium Project at Gabanintha, strengthening our goal of becoming the next global primary producer of vanadium products for the customary steel and rapidly-growing battery markets.”
Contract with HCF and Grant Thornton
The Australian Vanadium Project will be funded through a combination of debt and equity, and the company believes with the advancing of a bankable feasibility study, it is the right time to engage with financial institutions, as it accelerates towards final investment decision in 2022.
As per the contract signed between the three parties, HCF, in collaboration with Grant Thornton, will assist in securing finance for the project.
This agreement is a contract for advisory service and is broken into three phases, each triggered by the completion of project milestones.
The final outcome is to secure project finance for the full development of the project.
Since its foundation in 2003, HCF has earned a reputation for delivering innovative solutions to clients through the execution of transactions with a value above US$12 billion.
“Important project in critical minerals space”
HCF managing director Sean Gorman said: “We are very excited to be appointed alongside our partners at Grant Thornton to work on what we consider to be an important project in the Australian critical minerals space.”
“The work that the AVL team has completed demonstrates the technical and financial viability of the project and we very much look forward to working with the AVL team in securing the full funding to bring the Australian Vanadium Project into operation.”
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