Anglo American to buy minority stake in Canada Nickel

Anglo American said on Wednesday that it has agreed to buy a 9.9% minority interest in Canada Nickel, which owns the Crawford nickel project in Ontario, for an undisclosed sum.

The Crawford project is one of the largest undeveloped, bulk tonnage nickel sulphide resources in the world.

Anglo will also provide technology expertise to the Crawford project and has the exclusive right to purchase up to 10% of recoveries of nickel concentrate, iron and chromium contained in the magnetite concentrates and any corresponding carbon credits from the Crawford project.

Anglo American said its equity funding will support Canada Nickel's work to complete the necessary permitting requirements to proceed with development of the project.

The investment is part of Anglo’s approach to expand its nickel product offering with additional battery-grade nickel for use in electric vehicles, complementing nickel production from the company’s PGMs mines in South Africa, as well as ferronickel from its nickel assets in Brazil.

Peter Whitcutt, chief executive of Anglo American's marketing business, said: "As a responsible provider of future-enabling metals and minerals to our customers, we are committed to supporting our industry in increasing the availability of critical materials that will underpin the success of the energy transition, and to do so sustainably.

"Our in-depth product knowledge and portfolio of innovative technologies have the potential to provide a value-enhancing contribution to the development of the Crawford project, with the objective of unlocking additional supply of nickel to meet the world's growing demand for battery technology for electric transport."