Vulcan Energy Resources

Portland acted as ECA Advisor to Bpifrance, SACE and EIFO on the c. US$1.1 billion limited-recourse senior debt financing for the Vulcan integrated renewable energy and Zero Carbon Lithium™ Project located in Germany. Vulcan has access to the largest lithium resource in Europe and will produce both renewable geothermal energy for heat and power and battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) for Electric Vehicle batteries, from the same deep brine source in Germany’s Upper Rhine Valley.

Project Financing — Germany. Financial Advisor to SACE and BPIfrance.

• Total project cost of circa US$2.2bn with a debt to equity ratio of c. 50:50.
• The financing was provided by equity, grants, European Investment Bank, ECA facilities — both covered and direct lending (SACE, BPI, EDC, EFA, EIFO) — and a syndicate of commercial banks led by ABN Amro, ING, Natixis and Unicredit as structuring banks.
• Vulcan will produce 24,000 tonnes of LHM per annum that could equip 500,000 EVs.
• The project has entered into long-term lithium offtake agreements with major automakers, battery manufacturers and traders — Stellantis, Umicore, LG Energy Solution and Glencore.
• Zero-carbon lithium production because geothermal brine is used to generate electricity, which powers the lithium extraction and processing.