Hill Dickinson’s London Corporate team has advised ethically sourced mineral mining company, Firering Strategic Minerals plc, on its entry into definitive agreements with Ricca Resources Limited, an Australian diversified minerals company.
Firering is an AIM-quoted mining company focused on exploring and developing a portfolio of mines producing critical minerals in the Côte d’Ivoire, primarily lithium and tantalum, to support the global transition to net zero emissions. Hill Dickinson advised Firering on its IPO in Q4 2021.
The agreements will see Ricca Resources, formerly part of AIM and ASX-quoted Atlantic Lithium Limited, earn up to 50% of Firering’s interests in the Atex and Alliance lithium projects in Cote d’Ivoire by completing works in four stages and funding US$17 million of expenditure. In addition, Ricca will pay US$1 million in cash and issue US$0.6 million of Ricca shares to Firering.
The transaction enables Firering to fast-track the exploration of the Cote d’Ivoire mines and will combine Firering and Ricca’s shared exploration and in-country expertise to accelerate the resource definition and onward development of the project towards production.
The Hill Dickinson team advising Firering on the transaction was led by partner Sam Hudson, with assistance from senior associate, Terry Ko.
The Atex Lithium-Tantalum Project has consistently demonstrated potential to be Côte d’Ivoire’s first lithium mine. Our partnership with Ricca will help to bring this to fruition and our combined expertise will support an accelerated exploration pathway. The investment by Ricca will reduce our funding risk through studies and towards production. The partnership also reduces capital costs and brings with it the support of a management team at Ricca with highly relevant recent experience developing a West African lithium asset. It was a pleasure to work with the Hill Dickinson team on this transaction. Their pragmatic and commercial approach enabled us to work with Ricca to achieve a fantastic transaction for all parties involved. We look forward to working with them again in the future.Yuval Cohen
CEO, Fifering
Commenting for Hill Dickinson, Sam Hudson said:
“We are delighted to have been able to assist Firering with this significant transaction which will enable it to work with Ricca to advance the project through to production. We wish Firering and Ricca every success moving forward.”