Fresh information has emerged that Canadian Premium Nickel Resources Corporation (PNR) the light weight chosen as BCL preferred bidder is standing on the shoulder of global corporate giants with market capitalization running into tens of billions of dollars.
Sunday Standard investigations had earlier revealed that as at September 2020, PNR’s parent company, North American Nickel, had C$873,000 and assets worth around C$40m. Given the parent company’s precarious capital position, pundits were casting aspersions on its capability, together with PNR, to run BCL.
“To properly restart BCL, you need over half a billion USD. Clearly NAN and NPR are punching way above their weight. How can a company worth C$40m execute a project that needs over $500m, ten times its size? The liquidator’s decision is bizarre and this just might turn out to be a grave embarrassment for Botswana,” they said.
Sunday Standard has however turned up information that the Canadian company is only a stalking horse for Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), China’s EV Battery Crown Jewel with a market capitalization of US$ 70 billion.
The world’s lithium-ion battery (LIB) market leader acquired 25% of North American Nickel two years ago and the BCL acquisition promises to be a big boom for CATL.
Nickel is seen as a replacement battery component for cobalt, which is more expensive and poses human rights issues due to it being mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. BCL is a strategic acquisition for both North American Nickel and CATL because of the growing demand for nickel following the surge of Plug-in electric vehicle, or PEV sales as governments decarbonize their transportation sectors and improve air quality. In turn, there are growing investments in lithium-ion battery, or lithium-ion battery, capacity to meet the rising demand from PEV manufacturing. As PEV uptake rises across Asia, Europe and North America, there is a greater geographical diversification in lithium-ion production capacity, bringing it closer to points of vehicle production and sales.
Llithium ion battery global production capacity is projected to increase from 455 GWh in 2020 to 1,447 GWh in 2025, at a CAGR of 26%. China and Europe will be the largest contributors to LIB capacity increases, just as the two regions will also become the biggest drivers of global passenger PEV sales.
Canadian Premium Nickel Resources Corporation (PNR) also has the backing of Three D Capital, a Canadian venture capital firm that invests in disruptive companies and promising junior resources companies. The Canadian company with a market capitalization of USD 800 million is a founding shareholder in PNR. Three D Capital owns approximately 10% (non-diluted) of PNR and holds a 5-year warrant to purchase approximately an additional 15% for USD$10,000,000.
On 11 February Trevor Glaum wrote an internal memo to BCL care and maintenance employees informing them that PNR had been selected as the preferred bidder for BCL and would be granted exclusive access to the mine to conduct due diligence over the next six months. An advance team is due to arrive in Botswana within the next few weeks to conduct the due diligence.
Despite earlier concerns, PNR spokesperson, Montwedi Mphathi confirmed to the Sunday Standard this week that they have long raised money for the due diligence, which has been parked in an escrow account for months. He said they were only waiting for access to commence the due diligence.
READ more next week about PNR’s decision on the BCL Smelter
