Sibanye-Stillwater has raised its stake in Finnish mining company Keliber to nearly 85% in a R3.33bn deal that gives it more exposure to green metals as the world transitions to a carbon-free future.
Headed by renowned deal maker and CEO Neal Froneman, Sibanye-Stillwater has been investing in battery metals to diversify its revenue sources beyond its existing platinum group metals.
Sibanye is positioning itself to benefit from the expected increase in the use of battery electric vehicles as countries move away from internal-combustion engines.
But even as the world aims to halve greenhouse emissions by 2030 as per the Paris Agreement and reach net zero by 2050, some argue that it could be decades before the world can completely wean itself off fossil fuels.
In February, Sibanye initially secured a 30.29% interest in Keliber before ramping it up to 50% plus one share in June and now 84.96%.
“We look forward to partnering with our Finnish stakeholders in the project to advance its permitting and development enabling delivery of high quality, low-cost lithium hydroxide with a low carbon footprint into the growing European battery industry,” Froneman said in a statement on Monday.
Keliber is a mining and battery chemical company with an advanced lithium hydroxide project in the Kaustinen region in central-west Finland that intends to sustainably produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide using its own ore.
Sibanye’s push into green metals includes an €85m acquisition of French mining group Eramet Sandouville hydrometallurgical nickel processing facilities near Le Havre.
It has also made an initial $70m investment into the Rhyolite Ridge project in the US, which is expected to be one of the first large-scale US lithium projects to enter production.
Sibanye is also still involved in a legal dispute after backing out of a deal to pay $1.2bn for two mines in Brazil on grounds that a failure of part of the wall of the opencast mine trashed the commercial merits of the transaction.
In May, the group said it had received notice of a legal challenge from London-based investment adviser Appian Capital, which rejected Sibanye’s contention that the geotechnical event was a material adverse event.
Sibanye’s share price ended 0.81% higher at R42.33 on the JSE. In line with other miners, however, it is still about 14% weaker so far in 2022.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.