Alliance Nickel is shifting into overdrive on the project financing plans for its NiWest Nickel-Cobalt Project with the appointment of Blackbird Commodity Partners as its debt advisor. 

Hot on the heels of signing a binding offtake agreement with giant global car manufacturer Stellantis, the recruitment of Blackbird – a specialised natural resources financial advisor with an extensive track record advising mining companies – will help the company evaluate and advance debt financing alternatives for NiWest in parallel with the Definitive Feasibility Study.

The DFS is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter and will undoubtedly feed into the project financing process, which Alliance Nickel (ASX:AXN) expects to be completed in the first half of 2024.

“We are delighted to bring Blackbird onboard as financial advisor to assist with securing future project funding for the development of the NiWest Nickel-Cobalt Project,” managing director Paul Kopejtka said.

“NiWest is an advanced nickel project with a high-grade laterite resource located close to established transport and power infrastructure in the Northern Goldfields mining region of Western Australia.

“There is a strong need to bring new, high quality nickel and cobalt projects like NiWest into production to supply the materials needed to meet global decarbonisation targets.

“A range of private and public funding opportunities exist to provide the capital needed to support this objective and we look forward to working closely with Blackbird to find the optimum financing structure for the NiWest Project.”

NiWest the next nickel-cobalt producer

The recent offtake deal with Stellantis – the producer of the Peugeot, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Dodge and Fiat car brands and more – placed Alliance Nickel’s NiWest project squarely on the road towards becoming a nickel-cobalt producer.

Stellantis’ order for 170,000t of nickel sulphate and 12,000t of cobalt sulphate over a five-year period underpins the project’s development.

NiWest is expected to produce 456,000t of nickel in nickel sulphate and 31,400t of cobalt in cobalt sulphate over its 27-year life.

Annual production is expected to average 19,200t of nickel and 1400t of cobalt over its first 15 years, making the mine one of the largest in both EV metals in Australia.

The NiWest project is located close to Murrin Murrin, the largest nickel-cobalt operation in Australia, currently owned by global mining major Glencore.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Alliance Nickel, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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