Lifezone Metals owns the Kabanga Nickel mine and refinery project, backed in January by global miner BHP. The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal values the firm at around $1 billion.
The refinery will use hydrometallurgical technology, developed by Lifezone, that uses water-based solutions to separate metal from waste rock more efficiently than the traditional energy-intensive smelting process which heats ore to extremely high temperatures.
"This is really providing two key solutions: a critical new source of battery metals in Kabanga, in partnership with BHP, and clean, ESG-friendly processing technology," said Lifezone Metals CEO Chris Showalter.
Kabanga, which Lifezone aims to bring into production in 2026, has a resource of 44 million tonnes at an average nickel grade of 2.61%, as well as 0.35% copper and 0.19% cobalt.
Lifezone Metals aims to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2023 under the ticker LZM. Investors have committed more than $70 million to the company through a private investment in public equity (PIPE).
"When I look at where capital has been deployed so far, there has been ample capital raised for electric vehicles, and for batteries, but very little capital raised for the supply chain, and that means clean metals," said John Dowd, CEO of GoGreen Investments.
The refinery plan is a win for Tanzania which, like many resource-rich African countries, wants to add more value to its minerals domestically. The Tanzanian government has a 16% stake in Kabanga Nickel subsidiary Tembo Nickel.
"Africa is of tremendous value, and of tremendous importance," Dowd said. "The amount of undeveloped resources on the continent is substantial."
Indonesia currently accounts for around 40% of the world's supply of nickel, with much of that production controlled by Chinese companies. Finding alternative sources of battery metals is a priority for the United States.
(Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
