Lithium explorer Li-FT Power closes $9 million public offering

Li-FT Power’s Yellowknife project in the Northwest Territories from the air. Credit: Li-FT Power.

Li-FT Power (TSXV: LIFT) has closed its recently announced overnight marketed public offering of flow-through shares priced at C$8.65 each. About 1.44 million shares were sold.

The proceeds, totaling C$12.4 million (~$9m), will be used to fund exploration at the company’s flagship Yellowknife lithium project in the Northwest Territories.

In its initial announcement last Friday, Li-FT said it would issue 1.25 million shares for total proceeds of C$10.8 million.

The offering was led by Canaccord Genuity on behalf of a syndicate of agents that included SCP Resource Finance LP, Scotia Capital and Beacon Securities.

Shares of Li-FT Power rose by 8.5% on Friday at mid-day following the public offering closing. The Vancouver-based explorer company has a market capitalization of C$239.7 million.

Continent-wide potential

The Yellowknife project consists of numerous spodumene-bearing pegmatite systems that are mostly exposed at surface, and large enough to be visible from satellite imagery.

Historic channel sampling produced reported average grades from 1.10 to 1.59% Li2O over widths of 7 to 40 metres.

These pegmatite systems could make the project one of the largest hard rock lithium resources in North America, Li-FT CEO Francis MacDonald says.

The property was previously explored by Superior Oil in the late 1970s until its acquisition by Mobil and eventual divestment. The lithium assets were subsequently transferred to a private company, which optioned the project out for a brief period until 1987.

Very little exploration work was completed on any of the pegmatites since. In late 2022, Li-FT acquired a 100% interest in the Yellowknife project from the private company.

In June 2023, Li-FT initiated a 34,000-metre drill program with the aim of building the first resource estimate for Yellowknife.