Nickel Asia ups stake in Coral Bay Nickel

MANILA, Philippines — Nickel Asia Corp. has raised its stake in Coral Bay Nickel Corp. (CBNC).

The company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday that it purchased 33.046 million common shares of CBNC from majority shareholder Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (SMM) for $25.94 million.

This allowed the company to increase its equity ownership in CBNC from 10 percent to 15.625 percent.

Nickel Asia said it exercised its option to purchase the additional CBNC shares, as approved by its board last March 10.

CBNC operates the Coral Bay High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) processing plant in Bataraza, Palawan, which processes metals from lateritic nickel ore.

Nickel Asia said the additional investment is part of its commitments toward sustainability, environmental protection, and renewable energy.

It noted that “the processing of lateritic nickel ores by the CBNC HPAL plant allows the utilization of cobalt and nickel derived from such ores for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries.”

Nickel Asia said the transaction also strengthens its long-standing partnership with SMM.

The company, through Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. (RTN), is the exclusive supplier of limonite ore to the Coral Bay plant, the country’s first hydrometallurgical nickel processing plant owned by CBNC.

RTN entered into an agreement with CBNC to supply all the limonite ore requirements for the Coral Bay facility.

CBNC started operating in 2005 and currently operates at a capacity of 24,000 tons of contained nickel and 2,000 tons of contained cobalt per year in the form of a mixed nickel-cobalt sulfide.

The Coral bay plant has proven to be the world’s most efficient facility using the high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) process.