By Adriano Marchese


Frontier Lithium and Japanese trading company Mitsubishi Corp. have formed a joint venture around Frontier's lithium project and planned chemicals conversion facility in Ontario.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mitsubishi will acquire an initial 7.5% interest in the project for a total of 25 million Canadian dollars, the equivalent of $18.4 million, and also will have the right to increase its interest to 25%.

Frontier said Monday that the joint venture will be formed around Frontier's PAK lithium project in the Red Lake mining division, as well as for a future lithium chemicals conversion facility which is currently in the planning phase.

Frontier will be the operator of the project and will be responsible for the development and delivery and later for the operation of the project.

For Mitsubishi, the move marks its first step into upstream lithium production to tap into growing demand for battery materials supply chain.

The agreement to form a joint venture also is part of a broader cooperation agreement between the governments of Canada and Japan to work more closely to establish effective global battery supply chains.


Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-04-24 0643ET