Mick Davis, who is the former CEO of Xstrata, recently founded Vision Blue Resources, a battery metals investment firm whose objective is to become a battery metals giant. The company recently launched a $300 million SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company).
Last week, ESM Acquisition Corp, co-sponsored by the Energy and Minerals Group, a private equity mining investor and VBR, made its debut on the U.S. market. The company seeks to invest in mining projects that are engaged in the production of minerals required by electric vehicles and other green energy technologies. The objective is to use ESM to look for bigger investment opportunities while VBR invests in small mining projects.
In a media statement, VBR revealed that ESM’s strategy was to determine and complete a preliminary business combination with a target that could benefit from its leadership team’s considerable experience in the mining industry. The company added that ESM planned to focus on a target business that was positioned to benefit from the worldwide transition toward a low-carbon economy.
Data composed by Bloomberg shows that so far this year, more than 600 issuers have raised $162.4 billion, with SPACs accounting for half of those offerings. The purpose of SPACs is to raise money in a listing then use the funds to obtain assets within two years.
VBR also announced that it had invested $11.5 million into Ferro-Alloy Resources, which is currently developing the Kazakhstan Balasausqandiq vanadium project. This is the second company Vision Blue Resources has invested in since it was launched in February. The first company was NextSource Materials, a Canadian company that is constructing a graphite mine over in Madagascar.
In the natural resource industry, Davis is well known, having managed Xstrata from when it was a $500 million business to an operation so massive that at some point, the company made a plan to takeover Anglo American.
In 2012, Glencore acquired Xstrata and Davis established X2 Resources, which unfortunately, did not acquire any deals three years after being launched. Not one to be dissuaded, however, Davis co-founded Niron Metals in 2019. The investment firm is involved in bringing iron ore deposits acquired from the Zogota mine in Guinea into production.
Last month, Davis warned that the supply of battery metals, such as cobalt, nickel and graphite, was not keeping up with the growth in demand, explaining that the need for battery metals would exceed anything the natural resource industry had ever encountered. This may explain why the mining expert is set on dominating the battery metals industry and supply.
One mining company that is already reaping the benefits of the surge in the demand of battery metals such as copper is Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX: EXN) (NYSE American: EXN) (FSE: E4X2), which saw an increase of 19% in its production of copper in the last quarter 2020.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX: EXN) (NYSE American: EXN) (FSE: E4X2) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/EXN
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