Kodal Minerals (AIM: KOD), the West African lithium producer, mineral exploration and development company, announces that the Company’s maiden shipment of 28,950 tonnes of lithium spodumene concentrate (vessel capacity) has completed loading onto a dedicated bulk cargo vessel at the Port of San Pedro in Côte d’Ivoire. The vessel arrived on 29 November 2025 and the loaded vessel subsequently departed on 30 November 2025 bound for the destination port in Hainan Province, China.
Following completion of loading, our local Mali registered mining company, Les Mines de Lithium de Bougouni (“LMLB”) (a subsidiary of Kodal Mining UK Limited (“KMUK”) in which Kodal has a 49% shareholding), will submit an invoice for the initial 95% of the cargo value with the offtake partner, Hainan Mining Co. Ltd (“Hainan”). LMLB are subsequently due to receive the first payment from this shipment for a total expected value of c. US$24 million.
The focus of LMLB’s operations over the recent weeks has been the transport of over 30,000 tonnes of lithium spodumene concentrate from the Bougouni Lithium Project (“Bougouni” or the “Project”) in Southern Mali to its dedicated stockpile facility at the Port of San Pedro, a c. 880km road journey, ahead of first shipment. This successful transport operation as well as the subsequent loading and departure of the vessel from the port highlights the effectiveness of the transport route. To date, the Stage 1 Dense Media Separation (“DMS”) processing plant at Bougouni has produced over 45,000 tonnes of lithium spodumene product, grading an average lithium oxide content of 5.39%.
Bernard Aylward, CEO of Kodal Minerals, remarked:
“The completion of the loading and the departure of our first shipment of lithium spodumene concentrate to our joint development and offtake partner, Hainan, is a major milestone for our team and will result in the receipt of the first revenues from the Project.
“Additionally, the significant improvement in the lithium pricing environment in recent weeks will be reflected in the sale price for our spodumene concentrate as per the terms of the Offtake Agreement. The final sale price for the lithium spodumene product will be adjusted to account for the actual grade and quality of product delivered and deducting the cost of sea freight, the Company expects the price to exceed US$930 per dry metric tonne (“DMT”) of spodumene concentrate.
“I would like to thank all of our stakeholders who have made this critical step possible – our loyal shareholders, dedicated workforce, supportive Malian stakeholders, including the Malian Government, the office of the Governor of the Bougouni Region and the entire Bougouni community, many of whom are amongst theon site at Bougouni. Additionally, I would like to thank Hainan for its unwavering support of the Project as our joint development and offtake partner, without which today’s, momentous achievement would not have been possible.”
Bougouni Lithium Project background
The Bougouni Project commenced construction in mid-2024 and announced first production of high-grade lithium spodumene concentrate at grades of 5.53% Li2O in February 2025 (see announcement released on 11 February 2025) during the plant commissioning phase and has produced over 45,000 tonnes of spodumene, to date. The Stage 1 DMS processing plant processes coarse-grained spodumene material sourced from the Ngoualana Mine, with a planned feed of 1 million tonnes per annum of lithium ore into the DMS processing plant. The DMS processing plant utilises a conventional circuit to maximise spodumene recovery. The targeted annual production at the Project is 125,000 tonnes at average grade of 5.5% Li2O.
The Project is the second-only lithium mine in Mali. The Company recently commenced and successfully completed first transportation of spodumene product from site to the Port of San Pedro in Côte d’Ivoire, which will subsequently be exported to its JV and offtake partner’s, Hainan, refinery in China.