Harare - Transamine Trade and the Kamativi Tailings Company (KTC) have signed a term sheet for a $9.5-million finance and offtake facility for concentrate produced from the Kamativi tailings lithium project, in Zimbabwe.

Founded in 1953, Transamine is the world's oldest independent and privately held commodities trading company specializing in non-ferrous raw materials.

Chimata Gold Corp. is a Canadian based mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and exploration of significant properties of merit in highly prospective areas of known mineralized potential and historical production.

The tailings project is an operation by Kamativi Tailings Company (KTC), a joint venture between Jimbata and a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), Kamativi Tin Mines (KTM).

Independent consultant, MSA Group was engaged to determine the lithium resource in the tailings dumps at the former tin mine in Matabeleland North and announced that the maiden mineral resource statement at Kamativi Tailings Lithium project indicated resource amounting to 26 320 000 tonnes at 0,58 percent Li2O.

According to the deal, the proceeds will be used for the construction of the Phase 1 processing plant to be built for the project, as well as for working capital.

As part of the agreement’s terms, KTC will produce a +6 percent lithium oxide spodumene concentrate to be sold to Transamine, which will have the right to 150 000 t of concentrate produced from the Phase 1 processing plant.

KTC chairperson John McTaggart said the company “looks forward to developing a long-lasting and beneficial relationship with Transamine over the years to come”.

In the meantime, the project team is looking to finalise all documentation to continue the rapid advancement of the project and construction of the Phase 1 processing plant to bring the project into production as quickly as possible.

Canadian strategic metals company Chimata Gold’s local Zimbabwean partner holds a 60 percent equity stake in KTC, which is a joint venture with the remaining 40 percent of the equity being held by Kamativi Tin Mines.

The Kamativi Project is located in the Matabeleland North Province of Zimbabwe, Africa, which is a lithium tailings deposit associated with the disused Kamativi tin mine, approximately 185 kilometres east-south-east of Victoria Falls.

This tailings stockpile has been surveyed to give an estimated 23,168,000 metric tonnes of historical tailings material on surface.

Chimata recently entered into a binding Letter of Intent with Zimbabwe Lithium Company Limited which has the exclusive development rights for the deposit as a result of a joint venture agreement with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. Upon final closing of the transaction, with all conditions having been met, it is expected that Zimbabwe Lithium Company will become a subsidiary of Chimata Gold Corp.

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