The money pile keeps getting taller
First Phosphate is trying to turn a Quebec igneous phosphate project into purified phosphoric acid for LFP batteries — the kind of plan that sounds very niche until you remember batteries are the new oil and everyone wants a slice.
CEO John Passalacqua says the company now has a Danish Export Credit Agency letter of intent for up to €170 million in equipment and services. That comes on top of a Canadian federal non-repayable $16.7 million contribution and a similar $170 million EXIM Bank LOI from earlier support.
Why investors are paying attention
This isn’t just a nice little ribbon-cutting update. Projects like this live and die on whether they can line up financing, customers, and enough credibility to keep the buildout moving. First Phosphate says it also has a definitive bankable offtake agreement with some prepayment, which is basically the corporate version of “cash now, products later.”
That combo — government support, export-credit backing, and offtake — makes the 2029 production target feel a lot less like a PowerPoint dream and a lot more like a real project timeline.
The catch
There’s still a huge difference between a letter of intent and cash in the bank, and mining-project timelines have a funny habit of stretching like old gym socks. But if First Phosphate keeps stacking commitments like this, the market may start treating the project less like a moonshot and more like a build-in-progress.
Big picture: the company is trying to turn policy support and customer demand into an actual mine-to-battery supply chain. If it works, that’s the sort of story investors love — right up until the timeline slips.