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Brazilian miner Vale has signed a binding agreement with Manara Minerals of Saudi Arabia under which the latter will buy a stake in Vale Base Metals (VBM), the holding entity for the South American company’s Energy Transition Metals (ETM) business, it announced on Thursday July 27.
Manara Minerals is a joint venture formed this year between Saudi Arabia-based Ma’aden and that country’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Ma’aden announced the joint venture earlier this year to invest in upstream strategic minerals opportunities internationally. It hoped that the venture would secure value chains critical to industrial development and energy transition in Saudi Arabia.
Vale also said on Thursday that it has entered into a similar binding agreement with US investment firm Engine No.1, which will invest in VBM under the same terms.
A combined total under both agreements of $3.4 billion will be paid in cash to VBM on completion of the transactions. Manara Minerals will take a 10% stake, while Engine No.1 will hold 3%.
The transaction was expected to close by the first quarter of 2024.
VBM, whose headquarters are in Toronto, Canada, produces nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals in that country, among other products. The company also has operations in the UK, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.
The deal is one of the first to face Canada’s most recent update on guidelines governing foreign investment by state-owned companies in the country’s critical minerals sectors, implemented in October 2022. At that time, the Canadian government said that the country would “act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains.”
A Vale representative told Fastmarkets on Monday: “Vale respects the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates. This partnership is for a minority and non-controlling interest in our base metals business. All parties are open to any questions the Canadian federal government may have about the transaction.”
Vale said that these partnerships would help to drive VBM’s “significant potential” for production increases, to 900,000 tonnes per year of copper from around 350,000 tpy, and to more than 300,000 tpy of nickel from about 175,000 tpy.
“The Vale thing has taken ages,” a nickel trader said. “[The sector] will have to see whether this will have any effect on marketing channels or availability.”
Vale chief executive officer Eduardo Bartolomeo said that the strategic partnerships with Manara Minerals and Engine No.1 marked “another major milestone in ETM’s journey” to further growth and significant long-term value for stakeholders.
The deal will provide access to more competitive capital to fund $25-30 billion in capital expenditure over the next decade, according to Vale’s second-quarter earnings results.
Bartolomeo confirmed during an earnings conference call on July 28 that an initial public offering (IPO) could be considered, given the amount of investment that future projects could demand.
“An IPO could be [a possibility], [even] a merger, but it is not in our minds now,” he said. “That’s something to think about two or three years down the road. Our minds are totally focused on the execution [of this deal]. Now that we have closed the deal, let’s focus on… closing the gaps and… accelerating growth.”
From the total $3.4 billion, $1 billion will be retained in VBM to establish a healthy capital structure “to generate good cash flow,” executive vice president of finance and investor relations Gustavo Pimenta said during the conference call. He added that the other $2.4 billion “will go to the parent company.” fastmarkets
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