Kazakh mining startup Battery Metals seeks Hong Kong listing

14th January 2021 By: Reuters

ALMATY – Battery Metals Technologies, a Kazakhstan-based nickel and cobalt mining company, plans to raise funds through an initial public offering and list in Hong Kong, the firm told Reuters.

The company said on Thursday it plans to develop the Gornostayevskoye deposit located close to the Kazakh-Chinese border, one of the largest nickel deposits in the Central Asian nation, which has close economic ties with Beijing.

Battery Metals said it saw Chinese lithium-ion battery producers, which use nickel as a key component, as its primary potential customers.

"Although we do not limit ourselves to the Chinese market, we see it as one of the key markets for our project," the firm said in a statement.

Battery Metals Technologies declined to disclose details of the offering including its planned value, citing restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong stock exchange.

However, the company in a filing said it aimed to raise enough money to fund the development of its Gornostayevskoye project, adding that it would extract minerals using in-situ recovery and conduct operations in an ecologically responsible manner.

Battery Metals said it plans to start production in 2023 and ramp it up to 20,000 tonnes of nickel per year and approximately 1 300 t/y to 1 500 t/y of cobalt by 2039.

The startup, in which Kazakh businessman Kenges Rakishev has a controlling stake, estimates first-stage costs at $103-million with total project costs to be $1.5-billion.