BOTSWANA – Giyani Metals Corp., developer of the K.Hill battery-grade manganese project in Botswana, has finalized a US$26 million funding package to progress K.Hill to a final investment decision.
The funding is from the ARCH Sustainable Resources Fund, a private equity fund focused on strategic, long-term investments in natural resources and renewable energy.
The demo plant will produce battery-grade manganese, enabling Giyani to progress customer offtake discussions.
Following the completion of the ARCH offering, ARCH will hold approximately 19.99% of Giyani’s issued shares.
“ARCH is very happy to announce its strategic investment in Giyani Metals, recognizing the unique opportunity it presents in the rapidly growing global battery market due to the crucial role HPMSM will play in the future of lithium-ion batteries,” Amanda van Dyke, managing director at ARCH commented.
“Once operational, Giyani’s plant will showcase the commercial viability of the team’s proprietary low-carbon technology, positioning the company among the select few with high-quality projects capable of contributing to a diversified global supply chain and providing manufacturers with responsibly sourced, low carbon battery materials.”
The US$10 million ARCH investment fulfills a key condition to a drawdown of the US$16 million convertible loan facility secured by Giyani from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC) two months ago.
The total US$26 million funding package will progress K.Hill to the final investment decision, including an optimized feasibility study for the project and completing the construction, commissioning, and operation of the company’s demonstration plant.
The company said the IDC financing is the cornerstone of a US$26 million funding package that will progress the company’s K. Hill manganese Project in Botswana to a final investment decision over the next 15 months.
The company is planning to complete an optimized feasibility study as well as a demonstration plant that will produce battery-grade manganese for qualification testing by potential customers.
Giyani is a company that aims to become a player in the battery metals sector. The company is currently focused on the development of its K. Hill, Lobatse & Otse manganese oxide projects in the Kanye Basin of Botswana. Each of those projects has seen historic mining activities.
The flagship K. Hill project is a near-surface deposit currently winding its way through a feasibility study. The aim is to produce a high-purity electrolytic manganese metal and manganese sulphate, both key ingredients for batteries in the expanding electric vehicle market.
Giyani has developed a hydrometallurgical process to produce high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate, a lithium-ion battery precursor material that is critical for electric vehicles directly from ore extracted from its manganese oxide deposits in Botswana. The projects are wholly owned by Giyani’s subsidiary Menzi.
Manganese is among the most widely used metals in the world, fourth after iron, aluminum and copper. Historically, the demand, and hence the price of the metal is closely tied to the demand for iron ore in China.
Companies like Giyani are moving to capitalize on the explosion in demand for lithium-ion batteries and the increasing use of manganese as a key material in the fabrication of these batteries.
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