International Battery Metals Ltd. [IBAT-CSE] has announced details of a non-brokered private placement financing, with proceeds earmarked for preparing IBAT’s modular direct lithium extraction plant in Utah for future operations.
Under an agreement with Encompass Capital Advisors LLC, the company plans to issue 25.7 million units to Encompass at an issue price of US$0.19406, raising aggregate proceeds of US$5.0 million which is based on an issued price of $0.26625 (Canadian) for aggregate proceeds of $6.8 million (Canadian) using a Bank of Canada US$1.00 to C$ exchange rate as of July 18, 2025 of US$1.00 to $1.372 (Canadian).
Each unit will consist of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. The warrants issuable pursuant to the closing will entitle the holder to acquire one warrant share at an exercise price of $0.355 per warrant share for three years from the date of closing, which is expected to occur on August 8, 2025.
The company has granted Encompass the right to purchase up to US$2.0 million worth of additional units on or before December 31, 2025.
Concurrently with the offering and subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, the company will extend the expiration date of the warrants issued under a number of private placements last year with Encompass and EV Metals VI LLC.
IBAT shares were unchanged at 35.5 cents in early trading Monday. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of $1.43 and 24 cents.
Back in July, 2004, IBAT said it had commenced operations of its commercial proprietary modular direct lithium extraction (DLE) plant in Utah. The company said the announcement was an industry landmark, representing lithium produced from the only modular DLE operation in the world and the first commercial DLE operation in North America.
The commercial facility outside Salt Lake City, Utah, is co-located at the operations of US Magnesium LLC (US Mag) and is extracting lithium from a byproduct magnesium chloride/lithium chloride brine derived from historic magnesium production.
IBAT’s modular DLE system, currently situated on about one-acre, is in production and providing lithium chloride to U.S. Mag. IBAT has been working to expand production by installing additional columns on the same DLE modular platform with a target of significantly increasing capacity.
IBAT’s DLE technology is based on proprietary lithium extraction housed in patented extraction towers that are enclosed in a modular shippable platform that can be loaded and brought into production within 10 days of arrival at the customer site.
The company said its technology has been verified to extract more than 97% of available lithium from brine using no chemicals and with a water recovery rate of up to 98% via a closed-loop recycling system based on a third party-review of the Smackover extraction operations.
