AYABONGA CAWE: Sibanye’s Keliber move shows how SA can get a leg up in batteries
Sibanye-Stillwater has announced that it intends to exercise its pre-emptive right to increase its shareholding and take ultimate control of Finnish mining and battery chemical firm Keliber. Sibanye is set to become the second-largest shareholder alongside Finnish Minerals Group (a state-owned holding and development company). Keliber is positioned to be Europe’s first fully integrated lithium producer at 15,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually.
According to Sibanye, this investment responds to Finland’s “National Battery Strategy 2025”, which gives the nation that gave us the Nokia cellphone access to the European market. Europe is becoming a hub for the manufacture and sale of batteries and electric vehicles. In the Finnish national battery strategy, there is recognition and mapping of not only Finland’s capability in mining, refining and smelting capacity of battery materials, but moreover an engineering, ICT and electronics capability built over the years...
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