Via its Karibib project in Namibia and unique IP, Lepidico is a vertically integrated lithium development business that has produced both lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide from non-traditional hard rock lithium-bearing minerals using its registered L-Max and LOH-Max processes.
In 2022, Lepidico completed extensive pilot plant trials that should mitigate scale-up risk and this year has substantially upgraded its mineral resources (and ore reserves) at Karibib. In the light of these developments, we have increased our valuation of the company by approximately a third to 8.61c/share plus a further 0.65–1.59c/share for a significantly risk-adjusted 20,000tpa lithium carbonate equivalent Phase 2 plant.
Metals & Mining
Metals & Mining
Metals & Mining
Metals & Mining
Joe Walsh
CEO
Shontel Norgate
CFO
Forecast net debt (A$m)
121.8
Forecast gearing ratio (%)
99
% | 1M | 3M | 12M |
---|---|---|---|
Actual | 10.0 | (21.4) | (63.2) |
Relative | 13.4 | (19.4) | (62.2) |
52 week high/low | A$0.0/A$0.0 |
Lepidico’s patented technologies produce lithium hydroxide (plus by-products) in an eco-friendly way, sourced from less contested minerals such as lepidolite. The company recently raised over A$19m in equity and released an updated economics announcement on its Phase 1 project in November 2022 with an NPV (8%) of US$530m or A$749m (9.8 Australian cents per share) on a pre-funding basis. By contrast, at our updated lithium prices, we value the project at US$641.4m (8.4 US cents per share, undiluted), or A$906.6m. The project has an operating life of 19 years.
Y/E Jun | Revenue (A$m) | EBITDA (A$m) | PBT (A$m) | EPS (fd) (c) | P/E (x) | P/CF (x) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021A | 4.1 | 0.7 | (0.3) | 0.0 | N/A | 50.3 |
2022A | 0.0 | (4.8) | (7.9) | 0.0 | N/A | N/A |
2023E | 0.0 | (3.1) | (3.6) | 0.0 | N/A | N/A |
2024E | 0.0 | (3.1) | (14.7) | 0.0 | N/A | N/A |
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