Avenira Ltd (ASX:AEV) has announced its existing binding MOU with the NT Government to collaborate on a lithium battery cathode plant has been extended til 2025.
A revised project timeline released by Avenira on Tuesday showed it expects to complete a bankable feasibility study by December this year.
A complete project proposal and early location decision must be made by the first of March and June next year respectively.
The three way MOU is between ASX-listed Avenira, the NT government, and an entity called Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry Ltd (ALE).
Worth noting is ALE’s presence – the company is Taiwanese – working on an Australian sovereign critical minerals project in the country’s northernmost territory closest to Asia.
The NT government first inked the MOU in 2022, saying it would assist with connecting any project and plant to infrastructure.
The plant is, in formal parlance, a lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) battery cathode manufacturing facility. The NT government features the project on a webpage it owns promoting NT-based investment projects.
The project ties into an existing phosphate project by Avenira; the LFP facility will handle downstream processing – thus establishing a domestic supply chain for battery materials, per Australia’s current overhead strategic objectives.
AEV last traded at 0.6cps.