Wildcat Resources Ltd (ASX: WC8) shares are starting the week in the red.
In morning trade, the ASX lithium stock is down 4% to 58.5 cents.
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Why is this ASX lithium stock falling?
Investors have been selling the lithium developer's shares on Monday after broad market weakness overshadowed the release of an announcement.
According to the release, Wildcat has continued to advance workstreams for a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for its Tabba Tabba Project in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
It notes that optimisation of the mine plan is being completed, aiming to bring forward the Stage 2 process plant expansion (to 4.5Mtpa processing throughput), while reducing pre-production mining strip and capital expenditure.
Positively, it highlights that spodumene concentrate grading 5.65% Li2O, with a low iron grade of 0.63% Fe2O3, has been achieved from material representing years 1-2 of processing operations.
Management also points out that the pre-feasibility study (PFS) only considered processing of the spodumene-dominant Leia and Luke orebodies. As a comparison, the DFS will include processing streams for the tantalum mineral resource at Tabba Tabba, the spodumene-petalite mineral resource of the Chewy orebody and the petalite-dominant mineral resources of the Han and Hutt orebodies.
All in all, this bodes well for the release of the DFS.
What else?
The ASX lithium stock advised that applications for environmental approvals are underway and are expected to be lodged imminently.
In addition, funding discussions have commenced with government funding agencies, banks, and seasoned mining financiers. Management also revealed that there has been strong offtake interest from tier-1 parties.
Commenting on today's update, the ASX lithium stock's project director, James Dornan, said:
We are close to finalising the Definitive Feasibility Study for the Tabba Tabba Project. Mine planning and metallurgical testwork is being progressed across the entire life of mine, with material from Years 1-2 of open pit operations achieving a spodumene concentrate grade of 5.65% Li2O with low iron and excellent recoveries, providing confidence for the commissioning and ramp up phases of the Project.
Surveying and geotechnical work over the development site are nearly complete, with no major issues identified. In parallel, we are moving forward on applications for environmental approvals while also advancing discussions for funding and offtake from the Project and will provide updates on these as they progress.
Following today's move, Wildcat Resources shares are still up more than 250% from 16 cents over the past 12 months.
