BHP will invest up to $100m in Kabanga Nickel and has rights to make further investments in a major boost to the Tanzanian firm’s mine development plans.
If BHP invests the full $100m it will have a 17.8% stake in Kabanga Nickel valuing the Kabanga project at $658m. Describing itself as owning the world’s largest mine-ready nickel sulphide mine in the world, Kabanga Nickel is set to produce its first concentrate in 2025.
Its agreement with BHP sees the Australian-headquartered firm pump $40m direct into Kabanga Nickel and a further $10m to progress Lifezone, a bespoke processing technology unlike traditional smelting and has a reduced carbon impact.
A further $50m will be invested by BHP once certain conditions have been met. Similarly, BHP can make more investments on completion of development milestones. Kabanga is targeting minimum annual nickel equivalent production of 65,000 tons over a 30 year life of mine consisting of 40,000 tons of nickel, 6,000 tons of nickel and 3,000 tons of cobalt. There is exploration upside potential, the company said.
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