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Sibanye-Stillwater increases its stake in lithium developer Keliber to 84.96%

Kitco Media
By Vladimir Basov
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Updated
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(Kitco News) - Sibanye-Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW) announced today that its effective shareholding in Finnish lithium developer Keliber Oy has increased to 84.96%.

According to a press-release, in the first stage of the financing arrangement, Sibanye-Stillwater exercised its pre-emptive right to increase its shareholding in Keliber to 50% plus 1 share investing EUR 146 million in Keliber for new shares which are expected to be registered with the Finnish Trade Register soon.

The company said it also made a voluntary cash offer to minority shareholders of Keliber, other than the Finnish Minerals Group, which has resulted in Sibanye-Stillwater's shareholding increasing to an effective 84.96% for a further cash consideration of approximately €189.8 million excluding Finnish transfer tax of €2.3 million.

The Finnish Minerals Group currently holds an effective 13.90% of Keliber and other remaining minority shareholders an effective1.14% of Keliber.

CEO Neal Froneman commented, "We are delighted to have secured a majority stake in Keliber. We look forward to partnering with our Finnish stakeholders in the project to advance its permitting and development enabling delivery of high quality, low-cost lithium hydroxide with a low carbon footprint into the growing European battery industry."

Sibanye-Stillwater is a multinational mining and metals company with a diverse portfolio of mining and processing operations and projects and investments across five continents. The company is also one of the foremost global PGM autocatalytic recyclers and has interests in leading mine tailings retreatment operations.

Keliber is a European, Finnish special chemical and mining company with the aim of producing sustainable, high-purity, battery-grade lithium hydroxide for the growing lithium battery industry in 2024 by utilizing own ore.

The planned operations include lithium mines and the concentrator plant in Kaustinen, Kokkola and Kruunupyy, Finland, and a lithium hydroxide plant in Kokkola.

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Vladimir Basov

Vladimir (PhD, MEng in Mining) is a professional mining engineer, scientist and analyst that has more than 20 years of practical in-field and research experience. He is particularly interested in collecting, processing baseline data and writing insightful data-driven mining industry analytics, articles, statistical and research reports.

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