Anglo American, the diversified mining company, has agreed to buy a 9.9% minority stake in Canadian Nickel, which owns the Crawford Nickel project in Ontario, foreign media reported on Tuesday.
Anglo will also provide technical expertise to the Crawford nickel project and the right to purchase up to 10 per cent of nickel concentrate from the source.
Meanwhile, Anglo American's equity financing will support Canadian Nickel in completing the licensing requirements required to develop the project.
The investment is part of Anglo's expansion of its supply of nickel products, adding battery grade nickel for electric vehicles, complementing nickel production from platinum group metal mines in South Africa and ferro nickel production from nickel assets in Brazil, which is mainly used in the global stainless steel industry.
Anglo American applied its FutureSmart mining technology to ore samples from Canadian nickel mines with the aim of assessing opportunities to improve processing recovery rates and reduce the overall energy, emissions and water footprint of the project.
Located in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction in Ontario with the best support infrastructure, the Crawford Nickel project is one of the largest undeveloped bulk nickel sulfide resources in the world. If it goes into production, the project is expected to play an important role in expanding the available supply of battery-grade nickel.
Completion of the private placement and related offtake and technical agreements is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of the TSX-V, which is expected to close on or about February 28.
