Business by GARY SHIPWAY Premium Content Subscriber only THE company planning to build a lithium mine near Darwin is marching towards a production start, raising $40m to advance the development. Core Lithium, a South Australia-based emerging lithium producer that wholly owns the Finniss lithium project south of the Port of Darwin, says the $40m puts it one large step closer to financing construction of the project. It said the capital came from new high quality institutional investors, primarily located in North America, Europe and Australia, aligned with the company's vision of soon becoming Australia's next lithium producer. This means the project is substantially de-risked with funding through to construction, anticipated to start late this year.