Canadian firm to invest US$26m to revive BCL

Mbongeni Mguni | Friday February 12, 2021 13:04

 

Canadian firm to invest US$26m to revive BCL

A memo apparently written by the BCL liquidator, Trevor Glaum, to the remaining workers conducting care and maintenance activities, indicates that the Canadian firm will now conduct a comprehensive due diligence process on the BCL assets.

“This is therefore not the sale of BCL and Tati assets as yet, but a period of six months granted to Premium Nickel Resources in which to make a final decision on the economic viability of extraction and processing of the ore resources or not,” Glaum wrote on Thursday.

The Canadian firm, meanwhile, has told investors it intends to raise US$26.5 million (P287 million) to resuscitate the BCL and Tati mines. According to a recent investor presentation, Premium Nickel Resources plans to inject US$2.5 million to support 120 days of due diligence “culiminating in the asset purchase”.

Another US$12 million will be used to advance the assets to prefeasibility compliance within 12 months and another US$12 million will further move the progress to a compliant feasibility study level in another six months.

“The proposed transaction represents a rare and attractive opportunity to participate in a nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mine restart in an attractive mining jurisdiction,” the investor presentation reads.

Efforts to contact officials at the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.