Australian mineral-focused investment firm Wyloo Metals has announced the purchase of fellow Australian mining company Mincor Resources.
The A$760m (US$509.41m) deal sees Wyloo purchase 90.87% of Mincor shares. The initial bid was placed by Wyloo in March, aiming for $140 per share for all Mincor shares Wyloo did not already own. The company already held 19.9% of Mincor prior to the bid.
Mincor, which focuses mostly on nickel extraction, centres most of its operations in the mineral-heavy region of Western Australia, home to the country’s five biggest nickel mines. Mincor’s operations in the area, specifically around the Kambalda district, include the company’s flagship Cassini mine, which contains 1.47 million tonnes (mt) of reserves, and the 470,000mt Northern Operations deposit.
“Wyloo has targeted nickel sulphides as they are the greenest and cheapest option for battery manufacturing: they have the best economics, can be processed into battery-grade nickel with the lowest environmental footprint and are fully recyclable,” explained Dr Andrew Forrest, chairman of Wyloo parent company Tattarang.
Wyloo CEO Luca Giacovazzi added: “By adding Mincor to our portfolio, we have introduced a producing mine alongside our long-life development projects, with all our ore bodies located in the tier-one jurisdictions of Australia and Canada.”
Giacovazzi continued: “The acquisition of Mincor turns Wyloo into a fully integrated nickel business that brings together high-grade nickel production from Kambalda with our planned downstream processing facility in Kwinana.”
In April, Wyloo secured a 30-hectare land deal with the Western Australian Government for a prospective battery materials plant. The plant, which will cost between $600m and $1bn, will process nickel and cobalt for use as battery cathode materials. In 2021, the company also took over Canadian nickel miner Noront, showcasing that its investment in nickel resources is part of a long-term strategy.
