Sibanye-Stillwater has entered into an exclusive agreement with the French-based miner Eramet SA to fully purchase a nickel hydrometallurgical processing facility for €65 million ($77.13 million) in order to increase its stake in the global battery sector.
This comes on the back of a similar investment in February, where Sibanye bought a 30-percent stake in the Finnish lithium hydroxide project Keliber for €40 million ($47.5 million).
Sibanye-Stillwater is the world’s largest primary producer of platinum, second-largest primary producer of palladium and third largest producer of gold. The company, which has its diversified portfolio in South Africa and the United States, was founded in 2013.
Froneman has been its CEO since its inception.
The latest acquisition will deepen its footing in the global battery sector and advance its battery metals strategy and recycling activities.
Froneman has described it as an “important step in getting further downstream exposure to the battery metals value chain,” while leveraging its existing platinum group metals relationships.
Moreover, the deal will be concluded by the year’s end subject to the approval of South Africa’s Reserve Bank and competition bodies.
Eramet SA
Eramet SA is a Paris-based multinational integrated mining and metallurgy company, listed on the Euronext Paris exchange under the symbol, “ERA.”
Its activities are spread across three business divisions, including nickel, manganese and alloys. The site has scalable nickel, cobalt and lithium battery-grade deposits, and a hydrometallurgical nickel refinery with a 12,000-metric-tonne-production capacity of high-purity nickel metal per annum. It also produces 4,000 metric tonnes of nickel salts and solutions and roughly 600 tonnes of cobalt chloride per annum.
