Posted on 10 Oct 2022
Philippines nickel producer Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) has acquired 33.05 million shares or a 5.63% stake in the Philippines-based nickel smelting and refining company Coral Bay Nickel Corporation (CBNC) for $25.94m from Japanese mining firm Sumitomo Metal Mining (SMM), Kallanish notes.
Following the acquisition, NAC’s equity ownership in CBNC increased to 15.63% from 10%.
SMM’s stake in CBNC, on the other hand, was reduced to 84.38% from 90%.
According to SMM, NAC and SMM had discussions on the long-term future direction of CBNC and reached an agreement on the transfer of the shares.
It says this transfer will further strengthen the cooperative relationship with NAC, and will reinforce the foundation of SMM's business.
CBNC operates the Coral Bay High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) processing plant in Bataraza, Palawan, which processes metals from lateritic nickel ore.
NAC says this investment by the company was made in furtherance of its commitments toward sustainability, environmental protection, and renewable energy, since the processing of lateritic nickel ores by the CBNC HPAL plant allows the utilization of cobalt and nickel derived from such ores for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries.
It says the sale and purchase transaction also strengthens the long-standing partnership between the company and SMM.
Source:Kallanish
